Second Chances
by marialisa
Summary: The team are left reeling after Martin's girlfriend is attacked, and the investigation puts them all in danger. Jack needs to talk to Sam MOC, DOC, VM and just possibly there might be some JS......
1. Chapter 1

_Disclaimer: I don't own WAT or the WAT characters………….._

_Your reviews are always welcome…………..!_

He sat and stared at the lines of white powder on the table, all he had to do was lean forward and use the rolled up $100 bill and he knew he would feel fantastic, invincible…………

His hand was shaking, he wanted that feeling again, he wanted to wipe out what he was feeling now; wipe out the knowledge of the hurt he had caused, of the damage he was doing, he wanted her back………….

He reached for the phone and dialled her number.

'Hello', her voice was heavy with sleep; he looked at the clock and realised it was 2:30am.

'It's me….I need to talk to you.'

He heard her groan, 'what time is it…,' she obviously had looked at the clock, 'you have got to be joking,' anger had driven the sleepiness from her voice, 'it's half past two in the bloody morning you selfish bastard, if you want to talk call me back when I'm awake.'

He heard the phone crash down and knew she would turn the ringer off in case he called back. He sat with tears silently pouring down his cheeks knowing his last chance was gone; he reached for the $100 bill and leaned forward……….


	2. Chapter 2

'Hello, I'm US Attorney Carlisle. I'm here to see Special Agent Jack Malone.'

The receptionist examined Maggie's ID before picking up the phone and dialling a number; 'Hello, I have US Attorney Margaret Carlisle for you', she listened for a moment, 'Thank you sir, I'll do that.'

She smiled a bright professional smile at Maggie; 'Please take the elevator to the third floor reception. They'll issue you with a security pass and then someone will escort you to the 12th floor to see Special Agent Malone.'

Maggie smiled her thanks and headed for the elevator. At the third floor reception she was issued with a visitors badge with 'Escort Required' emblazoned on it and directed to a seating area to await said escort. She sat down aware that the butterflies in her stomach had morphed into elephants…….she tried taking a few deep breaths……..

_OK, so it's your first Federal case and they are depending upon you to put a child rapist and murderer away for life but no pressure, no need to feel nervous_

Yeh right, no need to feel as if her breakfast was about to make an unscheduled appearance all over the floor…

'Excuse me, is there a bathroom?' she smiled brightly trying to pretend she wasn't about to hurl; the receptionist pointed to a door down the hall and Maggie tried to walk at a normal pace….tried and failed, throwing herself into the bathroom and reaching the stall just in time...

Once the sickness had passed Maggie stood at the wash basin staring at her reflection in the mirror; chestnut hair, pulled up into a simple knot on the back of her head, the red in it glinting under the harsh bathroom lights, sea green eyes and a mouth she always thought was just slightly too big. She could see that she looked pale and that her lip gloss had been a casualty of her throwing up but more than that she knew she looked too young; too young to have the experience necessary to be a US Attorney, too young to be able to handle herself against seasoned defence attorneys and therefore, in the eyes of most of the men she had to deal with, not capable of handling 'the heavy stuff'……………she wondered if Special Agent Jack Malone would think the same when he saw her..

_Oh stop whingeing woman and get yourself sorted; you know you can do it and they will once you have proved yourself. This is what you've always wanted to do; you earned this promotion on merit whatever any of your disgruntled male ex colleagues may like to think so get out there and do your job and stop being so pathetic,_

She straightened up, applied some more nude lip gloss, picked up her case and headed back to the reception. As she returned to the waiting area she saw the receptionist was preening herself as a tall dark haired man, perched on the arm of one of the chairs flirted with her; Maggie bit her lip to stop herself from laughing; talk about laying it out on a plate, she couldn't have been more obvious if she had tattooed 'fuck me please' across her forehead.

She saw the man glance at her and then back at the receptionist, a question on his face and receive a quick nod in return; he straightened up and smiled at her;

'US Attorney Margaret Carlisle?' he held his hand out to her 'I'm Special Agent Danny Taylor'

Maggie shook his hand and looked him over quickly; he was certainly very attractive with an easy charm and a ready smile, and he was, from what she had seen, an accomplished flirt, something she suspected that came as naturally to him as breathing.

He indicated toward the elevator; 'We're on the 12th floor;' he pushed the call button and the doors opened immediately. He stood back to let her enter the car first and then followed, pushing the button for the 12th floor as he did.

He smiled at her, 'I understand that you've just moved to New York, do you know the city at all?'

Maggie grinned wryly 'A few trips for shopping, sightseeing, that sort of thing but I've never lived here.' The elevator continued its ascent.

'So how are you finding living here?'

'Well I'm hopeless at working out how long it's going to take me to get anywhere so I've either been horribly late or horribly early to everything since I got here last week; I've discovered that its best not to look out of the windows of any cab I'm travelling in because at least then I don't know when it misses a car, bike, truck or pedestrian by inches and I'm totally addicted to the hotdogs which seem to taste completely different to the ones in DC'

The doors to the elevator opened as they reached the 12th floor and Special Agent Taylor grinned at her as he indicated for her to leave the car first; 'Sounds to me like you've got the city sussed'

He opened a door, 'This is Jacks office, grab a seat and I'll get us some coffee'

Maggie put her case down on a chair but didn't sit down; instead she gazed around the room, her eye was caught by a photo of two pretty girls she assumed to be Agent Malone's daughters. The door opened and Agent Taylor entered again, carrying two mugs of coffee and followed by an older dark haired man.

He held his hand out to her 'Hi, I'm Jack Malone, you must US Attorney Carlisle'

Maggie shook his hand and smiled at him 'Look, we're likely to be working together on a lot of cases going forward, can we drop the formality? I'm…'

'Maggie?'

She turned quickly, a broad smile spread across her face; 'Hi Martin, it's been a long time'

He was grinning at her, clearly surprised but delighted that she was stood in front of him. He walked into the room and gave her a warm hug and kiss on the cheek; 'I don't believe it, when did you get to New York?'

'Last week; your mother gave me your number and I was going to call but when I saw your name down on the witness list for this case I decided to surprise you.'

Martin was laughing; 'well you certainly managed that. Dad told me that you had got the job in the US Attorneys Office but he didn't say anything about New York, I thought you were settled in Washington'

'Hmm, long story, I'll bore you with it another time', Maggie turned back to see the expressions on the faces of Agents Taylor and Malone were ones of unalloyed interest.

Agent Malone exchanged a loaded look with Agent Taylor and then gazed speculatively at Martin; 'I take it the two of you know each other?'

Martin grinned at Maggie before replying, seemingly ignoring the smirks spreading across his colleagues faces; 'Yes, our parents are friends'

Maggie could see that both had a lot more questions to ask; she cut in smoothly 'So as I was saying, as we are going to working together a lot going forward, maybe we can dispense with the formalities? I'm Maggie and I should probably warn you, I don't answer to Margaret' she smiled at them and she saw grins cross their faces

'Suits me, I'm Jack, this is Danny and as we have already established, you know Martin,' he shot a look at Martin that clearly suggested he was curious to know exactly how well they knew each other, but continued,' and we also have Samantha Spade and Vivien Johnson on the team but they are both out on a case at the moment and they aren't needed as witnesses in this case so I'll sort out those introductions another time'

Maggie smiled and took the seat that Jack indicated. She pulled out the papers for the Donnelly case,' I've got some questions on the case in general and then some questions for each of you specific to your witness statements but overall the case is in good shape,'

She pulled out a pen and her note book and checked her notes before looking at Danny; 'Can you talk me through the sequence of events that occurred when you entered Donnelly's home?

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Two hours later, with lunchtime upon them Maggie closed her note book and massaged her aching wrist; 'Look I really appreciate your time, I know it must be annoying having to go over it again but I would really like to make sure we nail this guy'

Jack smiled at her; 'It's no problem we're as anxious as you, if not more so, to make sure this sick bastard can't hurt another child.'

Maggie nodded, the photo's of the crime scenes still fresh in her mind, 'Well, I'm sure you are all busy and I've got a meeting this afternoon so I'll just say thanks and head back to the office'

Martin stood up quickly, 'I'll see you out,' she saw the look that flashed between Danny and Jack and bit her lip to hide her smile, unless she missed her guess Martin was in for a real grilling when he got back from seeing her out.

Jack and Danny both shook her hand; she could feel their stares as she and Martin walked to the elevator.

'They're staring at us aren't they?'

From the corner of her eye she could see Martin grin; 'Oh yes'

She kept her eye's facing to the front and from the corner of her eye could see he was doing the same

'Got time to grab some lunch before you head back?'

She laughed, remembering her conversation with Danny, 'How about a hot dog?' unless Martin had changed a lot he would be more than happy with a hot dog.

The elevator arrived and she entered the car and turned around to face the front; she could see Jack and Danny making no effort to disguise the fact they were watching them. Martin pushed the button and the door closed; he turned to look at her, 'a hot dog sounds like a great idea'

They headed out of the building and to the nearby park and a hot dog vendor. They found an unoccupied bench and sat down, Martin sitting so that he could look at her, an amused look on his face; 'You haven't changed'

'I have actually; I am now a convert to New York hot dogs. I definitely consider them superior to the DC ones' she shot him an innocent look and could see him laughing at her

'You don't think the superior taste is anything to do with the distance you've managed to place between your mother and her desire for grandchildren?'

Maggie nearly choked on a mouthful of hot dog, she felt Martin thump her on the back, she shot him a sarky look; 'I think you'll find your mother is every bit as broody; I saw her before I left and she gave me a name and number to give you; said she thought she would be 'perfect' for you'

Martin looked horrified, a look that rapidly changed to one of suspicion 'You're yanking my chain, aren't you?'

'You'd like to think so wouldn't you'; Maggie laughed at the look on his face as he tried to decide whether she was joking or not. She glanced at her watch; 'Damn'; she stood up

'Sorry, meeting in 30 minutes, got to go,' she grinned at him, 'Are you dating anyone at the moment?'

He stared at her blankly, confused by her sudden change of subject; 'Er, no, not at the minute, why?' the suspicious look was back on his face again.

'Because if you had been the invitation would have been for both of you, as it is the invitation is for you,' she paused enjoying the fact he couldn't figure out what was going on and pulled out a card and handed it to him, '8 o'clock tonight alright for you?'

She saw him look down at the change of address card she had handed him which showed her new address and telephone number. He looked up grinning, 'You're cooking?'

'Hmm, thought I might, you fancy it?'

'See you at 8 o'clock'

Maggie grinned, picked up her case and walked away leaving him still stood by the bench. She reached the edge of the park and looked back; he was still standing where she had left him, a smile on his face.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Martin arrived back at the office and headed for his desk hoping against hope that Jack and Danny had gone somewhere……………..anywhere

'Marty';

He groaned inwardly and turned to see Jack and Danny approaching

'Hey, we got anything new on the Reyes case?'

Jack and Danny exchanged amused looks; 'No, no Marty, no need to worry about Mr Reyes, Viv called while you were…, er…_at lunch'_, Martin couldn't miss the emphasis Danny placed on these words, 'it seems he just fancied some time away from his wife and children and had taken himself off to Atlantic City for a few days.'

'Great, I'll just get my paperwork sorted then…..', he paused as he saw the look in their eyes, 'what?'

'Good lunch?' Jack had a smirk on his face

'Yes thanks'

Martin sat down and tried to give the impression of someone with a lot to do and no time to talk in the hopes that they would get the message……………………but Jack and Danny remained standing behind him and he knew he wasn't going to get away without telling them what they wanted to know, still, he could make them work for it...he swung round and glared at them, 'Do you both want something?'

Danny looked thoughtfully at Jack, 'There was something wasn't there, something we wanted to ask Marty?'

Jack was playing along with this; his face took on a serious look, a slight frown creasing his forehead; 'Hmm, yes there was, wasn't there……let's see, oh I know what it was…'

'You and Maggie Carlisle' Danny jumped in, a grin plastered across his face.

Martin looked resignedly at them, 'What about me and Maggie?'

Jack and Danny grinned at each other and both grabbed a chair and sat down, 'Well lets see, how do you know her and more to the point how _well_ do you know her?'

'God, that's been eating at you both for three hours, hasn't it?'

'Yeh, so come on, tell us about her' Jack was clearly finding this very amusing

'I've known Maggie all my life, our parents are good friends; my father and mother are her godparents and her father and mother are my godparents.'

'OK, and……….?'

'What do you mean, 'and'?' Martin looked innocently at them

'Come on Martin, there's an 'and'', Danny sounded very confident and Jack was nodding in agreement.

'OK, well I went to an all boys school and she went to an all girls school. They did a lot of activities together,' Martin ignored the smirks that appeared on Jack's and Danny's faces as he said this, 'and Maggie was my date at the senior prom'.

'Uh huh, and that's it?' It was obvious that Jack didn't believe for a minute that this was the case.

Martin looked at them both for a minute and then grinned, 'and we dated in our senior year and through the summer but then I went to Harvard and she went to Yale and…' Martin shrugged his shoulders, then continued 'we've always stayed in touch to a greater or lesser extent depending upon where in the country we both were. Last time I saw her was last year at her engagement party'

Jack and Danny exchanged looks; 'I don't remember seeing any rings' Danny was frowning.

'No, apparently it was called off a few months ago, I'm not too sure what the story is, still, I'll ask her tonight if you like; I'll let her know you were both asking, I'm sure she'll be more than happy to let you both know intimate details of her private life….' Martin had an innocent look on his face

'Whoa, back up there a minute, you'll ask her tonight? You have a date with her?' Danny was grinning from ear to ear now

'No, I'm meeting an old friend, who has just moved into the city and knows no-one, for dinner.' The look on Martin's face told them he considered the subject closed.


	3. Chapter 3

_**Note**: Should have put this at the start of the story but I forgot! This fiction is slightly AU as the timeframe is post season three (so Martin and Sam have split up and Jack is divorced) but without the shooting and Viv's health problems and there is no Elena and definitely no Anne!_

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'When did you say you moved in?' Martin stared around Maggie's apartment.

'Friday last week'

He shook his head laughing at her, 'I was in my apartment three months before I'd unpacked all of my boxes; you've been here 5 days and there isn't a box in sight'

She grinned at him and handed him a bottle of wine and a corkscrew, 'Here, make yourself useful,' he took the bottle from her and deftly removed the cork and handed the opened bottle back to her.

She poured two glasses of wine, handing one to Martin and gave him a rueful look, 'well, my mother decided to help me move in and you know how she is; the best way of avoiding a long discussion about how tragic it is that I'm fading into lonely spinsterhood was to work as hard as possible and ignore her.'

Martin laughed, 'lonely spinsterhood; you're not serious?'

'Oh I am. I had dinner with my parents and your's on my last weekend in DC,' she rolled her eyes as Martin winced in sympathy, 'when our fathers headed out to the terrace to smoke their cigars our mothers started a conversation about how a woman's fertility declines with age and how 'statistics' show that if a woman isn't in a committed relationship by the time she's 30 she has a greatly decreased chance of ever getting married'

'Ouch'

Maggie shook her head, 'ever since Robert and I split up my mother is in overdrive; she even got me some details about an 'upmarket dating agency' and suggested I sign up.'

Martin looked incredulous; 'I'm not surprised you moved to New York, I'm only surprised you didn't put in a transfer request to Hawaii'

'Actually, I applied to the New York ADA's office because Robert and I would have been living here; after we split up I withdrew the request then I heard that they were offering me the US Attorneys job, but in New York rather than Washington. No way I was going to turn that down and New York's a big city', she paused a second and met his eyes, 'anyway, you were here so I knew I'd know someone.'

For a moment their eyes locked then she smiled, 'Diner's ready, you hungry?'

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Over dinner they caught up with all that had been happening in their work lives but Martin noticed that Maggie avoided any mention of Robert and the broken engagement; eventually he decided to test the water

'So obviously my mother told me that you and Robert had broken off the engagement….'

'and broke my mothers heart to boot' Maggie had a wry smile on her face.

'Yeh, she mentioned that too,' he hesitated a moment, 'look I don't want to pry but you guys looked good together so,' he paused again but she didn't say anything, instead she was staring at the table fiddling with a coaster, he continued cautiously, 'I guess I'm just asking if you are OK?'

She looked up and smiled at him, 'To be honest, by the time we announced the engagement was off the relationship had been over for a couple of months. He changed when he moved here; it was like he became a different person. It was hard when it all started to go wrong, but truthfully I've moved past it now. Anyway, it gave me time to realise what I really want in a relationship and I don't think it's being married to someone who wants to be in politics.'

'Does he know you've moved here?'

'I don't know, I haven't told him but I'm sure someone will'

'You've not stayed in touch then?'

'No not really,' she frowned briefly then seemingly shaking off whatever thoughts had bothered her she looked up and grinned at him, 'anyway, enough about me what about you?'

'Ah, well I'm afraid I did the classic,' he paused and saw Maggie raise her eyebrows questioningly, 'I dated someone from the office'

'Hmm, how'd that work out for you then?' she was grinning at him now

'Well, pretty good for a while but it was complicated and I guess the ending was never in doubt but we've stayed friends'

She nodded and then looked at him thoughtfully, 'did you get grilled when you got back from the park this afternoon?'

'Oh yeh'

'And? What did you tell them?'

'I told them that we dated in our senior year and the summer before college and that we have stayed in touch since'

She stared at him and then started to laugh, 'so you didn't mention our on/off on/off relationship through college and that the summer you graduated we took a road trip along the west coast having as much sex as we possibly could?'

'No, I thought I'd leave those bits out'

They were both laughing; 'You know I found my photo album of that trip when I was packing up to move, it's on the shelf if you want to have a look'

'The PG or the R rated version?'

'PG, in case my mother got hold of it,' she paused then, shooting him a suggestive look, 'the R rated ones I keep in the bedroom', with that she stood up, picked up the empty plates and headed back to the kitchen.

Martin felt his stomach tighten and a shiver run through him; she was definitely flirting with him and he knew her well enough to be certain that she wouldn't do that just to amuse herself for an evening. He smiled to himself; since she had left him in the park this afternoon he had been struggling to think about anything other than her……………

She arrived back at the table with a plate of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies laughing when she saw his face; 'I knew you'd prefer these over anything else so I dug the recipe out.'

Martin lent forward and took a cookie giving her a thoughtful look, 'You don't make these unless you want something,' she had an offended look on her face but before she could refute this as an outrageous slander he continued, 'Maggie I can list you a dozen times you've successfully bribed me with these cookies so come on, what is it you want?' any sting in his words was removed by the grin on his face

'I can't believe that you said that, can't it just be that I'm having dinner with a close friend and I wanted to do something nice for him' she tried to look offended but he could see that she was struggling not to laugh.

'Absolutely, but we both know it's not the case, don't we?'

She stared at him through narrowed eyes; 'OK Mr FBI hotshot, you tell me what I want then'

He looked smugly at her, 'you want a date'

'A date?'

'Yeh, a date……it happens all the time, one look and that's it. I knew you'd be no different'

Her eyes had narrowed to slits now as she stared intently at him. He gave her a small hurt smile, 'I don't mind, I mean he's a friend and you're a friend and I'll get used to it ….eventually….'

He saw a look of total confusion cross her face; he patted her hand consolingly and earned himself a look that had him struggling to hold back the laughter; 'so, if you have a pen and paper I'll write down his number for you although when I tell him you're interested I think he'll be straight on the phone to you', he looked expectantly at her and then looked around the room as if searching for a pen and paper.

'Who the hell are you talking about?'

Martin fought a battle inside himself not to laugh and managed to put a confused look on his face; 'well Danny of course'

'Danny? Who's Dan…….you mean the guy you work with?'

Martin couldn't contain the laughter any more; she sat watching him eyes still narrowed then he saw her smile sweetly at him and he stopped laughing in a hurry, he remembered that look as well; 'Hmm, now you mention it he was _very_ sexy; and he looks as if he would be good for lots and lots of very energetic uncomplicated sex, which, you know, after being celibate for _way_ too long, would be great, so if you want to give me his number…' she stood up as if searching for a pen and paper.

Martin grabbed her from behind, one arm holding her around her waist and the other hand used to catch hold of her wrists, 'Er, I don't think so'

She turned slightly so she could see him 'You suggested it, I have to admit I hadn't really given him much thought but as you clearly aren't interested….' She shot him a look that left him feeling distinctly hot under the collar.

'Tell me why you made the cookies?'

'You tell me'

Holding her close was making him remember just how good they had been together; she was leaning back against him and he knew there was no way she wasn't aware of just how 'interested' he was by now

He turned her to face him, keeping one hand around her waist, the other sliding into her hair and caressing the back of her neck. He searched her eyes for any sign that he was going too fast but only saw a heat in them to match the heat he was feeling. She dropped her eyes for a moment and stared at his lips and then raised them to stare into his eyes again; Martin felt as if the air had been sucked from his lungs, the distance between them closed and their lips met in a fierce kiss that had Martin feeling as if his knees would give way.

Suddenly she stepped away and held out her hand to him; 'come and see the bedroom'


	4. Chapter 4

**Two weeks later………………**

Dawn was just starting to cast it's pale light through the window as Sam stretched and yawned then wriggled in an effort to get comfortable. Danny watched her, an amused smile appearing when he saw the cross look she was sending him

'Don't look at me like that, I'm sore in places I didn't know I had'; she frowned as she saw Danny's smile become a smirk

'How can you not be uncomfortable, we've been sat in this car for 5 hours now and _nothing_ has happened' she sounded as fed up as she looked

Danny shrugged his shoulders, 'It's got to be done, no point moaning about it,' he grinned again at the annoyance on her face, 'anyway, did you have something you would rather be doing?'

She scowled, 'I've a list of things I'd rather be doing and don't tell me you wouldn't rather be tucked up in bed with Amy or whatever her name is'

Danny's grin widened, 'Anna, and there's plenty of things I'd like to be doing with her, and not necessarily in bed'

Sam shot him a disgusted look, 'Oh stop boasting, just because you're getting some action…..'

Danny shifted in his seat so he was facing her, 'and you're not?' his voice was soft but with something in it that made her stop and turn and stare at him, a blush staining her cheeks

'W…what do you mean?' she tried to sound nonchalant but suspected that she sounded defensive

Danny looked over at the house they were watching, and, seeing that there was still no movement, looked back at Sam.

'What did you think of the spaghetti at Luciano's? Personally I prefer the lasagne…………' he watched as she went bright red and stared at him in horrified silence

'Anna lives two blocks from there, we, well I, saw you when we were walking back from the subway on Monday night'

Sam groaned and put her head in her hands and then looked back up at Danny, 'I know what it probably looked like but I swear it wasn't Danny'

He looked at her thoughtfully, 'Look Sam, it's none of my business; I just don't want to see you get hurt again. Be careful, OK?'

She nodded quickly and then stared out of the side window in an effort to hide the tears forming in her eyes.

A silence fell then a front door opened;

'Well, well, it looks as if Mr Lieberman is on the move' Danny started the engine, as Sam picked up her phone to call Jack and let him know that they were following their suspect.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Jack looked at his team; they all looked as tired as he felt after working 48 hours straight searching for Jessica Lieberman. Of course the tiredness never felt quite as bad when there was a happy resolution as in this case when six year old Jessica had been re-united with her mother after being snatched by her father.

'OK, I need all your paperwork done and in my in tray tomorrow; Danny, I hate to tell you this but I've had a message from the US Attorneys office; apparently the defence is recalling you as a witness in the Donnelly case. Maggie is coming over after court finishes today to brief you because they want you on the stand first thing tomorrow.'

Danny nodded, 'OK, do you know what time she's likely to get here?'

Jack shrugged his shoulders and they both looked at Martin who stared blankly at them both hoping they would take the hint, however no such luck…

'Well?' Jack was grinning at him now

'Why would I know?' Martin noticed that both Sam and Viv were looking a little bemused at the undercurrent they were picking up.

'Maggie? Is that Maggie Carlisle the new US Attorney?' Viv asked looking between Jack and Danny's grinning faces and Martin's bemused one.

'Yes, and as it turns out, Martin's high school sweetheart'; Martin saw Viv grin and Sam stare at him at this news, Jack continued, 'in fact when she gets here I'll introduce her to you as she will be working a lot of our cases in the future'

With that Jack headed back to his office. Viv stood up, 'Well, I'll look forward to meeting Ms Carlisle when she gets here' she flicked an amused look at Martin before heading out of the bull pen leaving Danny, Sam and Martin sat around the conference table.

Sam was looking stunned by the news she had just received and for a moment no-one spoke then Danny stood up; 'well if I'm being re-called by the defence I had better review my case report' and without waiting for a response he disappeared toward the record room.

For a while Sam just sat and stared at Martin, then as he was starting to feel uncomfortable she spoke, 'You never told me about Maggie'; She sounded more curious than angry,

Martin looked at her for a moment before replying; 'No I didn't but then you didn't tell me anything about your past did you?'

He saw her take a sharp breath in then she smiled a little sadly and nodded her head, 'fair point,' she looked at him curiously, remembering how often he had been nearly late over the last two weeks and how cheerful he had been whatever had been thrown his way and the couple of times he had walked away to take a phone call………..'so, the two of you are dating then?'

Martin hesitated; since the night Maggie had cooked him dinner they had spent every night at her apartment or his, excepting last night of course when he had been stuck in a car with Jack watching one of their suspects. He had expected Jack to quiz him about Maggie, but he had been strangely distracted and the subject hadn't come up. It wasn't even as if he wanted it to be a secret………………………..'Yes we are'

For a moment Sam stared at him then she smiled, 'I'm glad Martin, I hope it works out for you' she hesitated again and then looking very awkward, 'er, does she know about us?'

'Yes she does and she knows we're friends and she's fine about it' he looked at the scepticism on her face and laughed, 'is that look because you don't think we're friends or that you don't believe Maggie is OK with us working together?'

Sam smiled, 'Well I hope we're friends but, I don't know, I don't know how I'd feel if my boyfriend was working with his ex girlfriend.'

'Wait until you meet Maggie, it'll be fine'

'So is it a secret? I mean obviously Danny and Jack know something but…?' her voice trailed away as she looked enquiringly at him

'Jack and Danny know we dated in high school but not anything more and although Danny suspects that something is going on, he just hasn't found a chance to ask me yet. So, no one, except you now of course, know that we are dating but no, it isn't a secret'

Sam smiled at him 'OK, well I look forward to meeting her then'

Martin stood up a smile on his face as he stared across the office, 'You can do that right now'

Sam looked around to see an attractive woman with chestnut hair talking to Jack and Danny; Sam followed Martin over to be introduced and nearly choked at the expressions on Danny and Jack's faces as Martin slid his arm around Maggie's waist and kissed her briefly on the lips. She saw Maggie's mouth twitch and knew she had seen their faces too.

Before Danny or Jack could say anything Sam walked over and held out her hand, 'Hi Maggie I'm Samantha' she waited to see the response and knew that Danny and Jack were doing the same………but Maggie smiled warmly at her, 'It's good to meet you.', Sam found herself smiling back.

Jack's mouth twitched; 'Right, so how is the case going?'

Maggie frowned; 'Well I managed to get the diary admitted as evidence but the defence managed to exclude some of the photos. Gavin Childs is very good and he's not trying to make his client seem whiter than white he's just trying to raise enough doubt in the jurors minds to get a hung jury' she looked at Danny, 'which is why he's recalling you, he's going to try and make it seem that Donnelly's actions after his arrest were prompted by fear and I suspect he's going to throw any complaints you've had made against you into the mix.'

Danny looked angry; 'that's such BS, he wasn't scared he was boasting and he had his rights read to him twice to make sure he couldn't claim that he hadn't understood that what he said could be used against him in court'

Maggie shrugged her shoulders, 'OK, but you did law, if you were his council and you were faced with a client who had pled guilty all the way until the trial what defence would you put up?'

Danny stared at her for a moment then nodded slowly, 'yeah, I see what you mean,' he looked at Jack, 'can we use the interview room, I think this might take a while'

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Danny stretched, yawned and then sat back and looked at Maggie. She smiled at him; 'Sorry, I know you must be desperate to get home and get some sleep but I think we've covered everything now. They should call you first and Judge Goodwin is always on time so if you can make it to the court house for 8am I'll stand you breakfast'

Danny grinned, 'Breakfast sounds good,' then he frowned 'there's no way Childs is going to be able to get any previous complaints made against me admitted as evidence, he's just trying to muddy the waters isn't he'

Maggie sighed; 'Yes, he knows it only takes a couple of jurors to have had a bad experience with the police or the feds or know someone who has, to buy that our 5ft 6inch weedy non descript defendant felt threatened by a 6ft tall federal agent who had been pointing a gun at him. He won't be able to get any complaints admitted as evidence but once he has mentioned them we both know that you can't un-ring the bell'

Danny groaned, 'So this could mean the difference between conviction and acquittal?'

Maggie smiled tiredly at him, 'No, if it comes down to this then it is because I haven't done my job well enough, just remember what we talked about and try not to let it show on your face that you think he's a scum bag'

'Who? Donnelly or Childs?'

Danny grinned at the look Maggie shot him and they stood up and headed out of the interview room; Jack and Martin were chatting at the door to Jack's office but stopped when they saw Danny and Maggie

'All done?' Martin was smiling at Maggie who nodded and turned back to Danny; '8am'

'8am' he agreed.

She smiled at Martin, 'OK, let's go home'; they headed to the elevator, Martin's arm around her shoulders as Jack and Danny stood watching them.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

'We could order in tonight, Chinese, pizza….whatever you want'

Maggie smiled, 'You know that sounds like such a good idea, get whatever you like I'm really not fussed'

Martin picked up the fast food leaflets from the table by the front door; 'You tried any of these yet?'

'No'

'Well this Chinese is very good' he waved a leaflet at her, 'so if Chinese is OK….?'

She smiled, 'Sounds great, do you mind if I have a quick shower while you order?'

Martin looked concernedly at her 'You OK, you look really tired?'

She laughed, 'I am and feeling guilty, I mean it wasn't me that's just worked 48 hours straight, it should be you dying on your feet'

Martin slid his arms around her and looked at her closely; there were shadows under her eyes and she looked distracted; 'Hmm, well I've drunk so much coffee that at the moment I'm on some sort of caffeine high, but you look as if you didn't sleep well last night.'

She dropped her eyes and leaning against him, placed her forehead against shoulder. Martin knew something was wrong but didn't push her, instead he stroked her hair and dropped a kiss onto the top of her head.

She looked up and smiled at him; he pushed some stray hair from her face and waited…………

She sighed, 'Robert rang last night'

Martin felt himself tense and looked at her questioningly, 'What did he want'

She was looking worried, 'I honestly don't know, he was rambling, telling me I was the only one he could trust, that he had to see me, that I was the only one who could help him….' She paused, 'Martin I think he was on something; he sounded dreadful and he was crying at the end, begging me to meet him'

Martin stared at her then took a deep breath, 'OK, did you say you would?'

Maggie shook her head, 'It was 1am and he wanted me to meet him at his apartment. I told him no and said he should call me again today if it was so important and that if we met it would be somewhere public and certainly not in the middle of the night'

Martin felt a sense of relief creep over him as she continued; 'He hasn't called today and I didn't call him but I'm worried, he sounded scared and that's not like Robert,' she met his eyes.

'Why don't you call him now and see, it might have been nothing and he's feeling embarrassed now and that's why he hasn't called'

She nodded and flipped open her cell phone, located a number and then dialled;

'Robert, it's Maggie, I just wanted to check that you are OK?'

She listened for a minute and he saw her face change to one of annoyance, then, sarcastically, 'Yeh, really good speaking to you too'

She shut the phone with a snap and she looked at Martin and shrugged her shoulders, 'Apparently I'm interrupting a 'business' meeting,' she looked angry and he saw her jaw tighten, 'well, don't I feel like the fool'

He put his arms around her waist and kissed her, 'Chinese?'

She laughed, 'Yes, definitely, Chinese!'


	5. Chapter 5

The sound of the alarm pierced Martin's consciousness; he heard Maggie groan and felt her reach out trying to hit the snooze button. Two failed attempts and then peace as her third attempt was successful.

She was lying on her side facing away from him; he slipped his arm around her waist and moved his body so that they were pressed together, his mouth traced a line of kisses down her neck and along her shoulder blade while he allowed his hand to gently caress her hip and then continue down over her thigh. She moaned softly and he felt her push her hips back eliciting a response that had her chuckling.

He moved his mouth so that it hovered next to her ear; 'What time do you have to be at court?'

'8am', she turned over to face him and kissed him passionately, sliding her leg up and then hooking it around his waist. Martin moved quickly, pinning her beneath him on the bed as he returned her kiss…..

'Damn', the alarm sounded again and they both collapsed in giggles. Martin reached over and turned it off.

She smiled apologetically at him; 'I need to have a shower otherwise I'll be late and I promised Danny I'd buy him breakfast,' she slid from the bed and walked toward the bathroom; as she reached the door she turned and smiled at him, 'join me if you like…….'

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

'You've got a message'

'Huh?' Maggie was checking the contents of her case at the same time as sliding her feet into her shoes and slipping her coat on.

Martin indicated toward the phone; 'Someone's rung and left a message; must have been when we were in the shower,' he grinned at her, 'do you want me to play it?'

'Mmmm, go on then' she was closing her case whilst still trying to get her coat on

'_Maggie, it's Robert, I'm sorry, I couldn't talk last night,'_ Martin saw the shock on Maggie's face; Robert sounded desperate and close to tears, _'I need to see you, there's no-one else I can trust…..Maggie please call me back on my cell…….I really need your help'_

She stared blankly at Martin, 'That's how he sounded when he rang two nights ago.'

'He can't have called more than 40 minutes ago, call him back,' he saw her glance at her watch, 'don't worry I'll run you to the courthouse and we can call Danny and let him know you're running late'

She dialled his number, 'It's going to message service,' she paused while the message played then, 'Robert its Maggie, I'm sorry I missed your call, call me back on my cell as soon as you can.'

Martin hugged her briefly, 'Come on, I'll get you to the courthouse'

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

'How did it go?'

Danny swung around at the sound of Jack's voice; he shrugged his shoulders, 'Maggie was right, they tried to make it seem that I intimidated Donnelly and that I've a history of beating up on suspects'

'Did they do much damage?' Martin perched on the edge of Danny's desk

Danny grinned and shook his head, 'Your girlfriend is one smart lawyer, Child's tried to get me rattled and when I didn't bite he asked about complaints I'd had against me. You could tell he was expecting Maggie to object, when she didn't Judge Goodwin jumped in and reminded her that the defence has no right to expect to introduce this type of evidence but she just stood there and said that she has no problem with the line of questioning because she knew that the jury was too intelligent to fall for such a cheap tactic.'

Danny leaned back in his chair; 'Child's got me to tell him about a couple of complaints of intimidation I had lodged against me, you know, making out that I have a habit of beating confessions out of suspects. Maggie stood up and got me to explain them again only of course she went on to ask me to explain their outcomes and how they were dismissed as being without foundation.' he was laughing now,

'Then she produced figures to show how many arrests I have made or been involved in over the same time period but the best bit was when she produced the Bureau's Code of Conduct and some official statistics of how many complaints were upheld last year. She showed that the Bureau takes this sort of thing seriously and left the Jury in no doubt that if I had beaten up on a suspect that I would have been canned. Child's tried objecting but of course because he had opened the door he didn't have a leg to stand on,' Danny was clearly enjoying the memory, 'Goodwin was having trouble not laughing he was enjoying it so much.'

Jack grinned, 'I'd have paid good money to see Child's face, I bet it was the last thing he expected.'

'He looked pretty pissed and to make things worse I was their final witness; they're doing closing arguments now and it looks as if the judge will send the jury out at the end of today'

'Was Maggie OK?'

Danny looked surprised, 'She was on fire,' he looked curiously at Martin, 'why'd you ask?'

'Ah, nothing, just a phone call she got before we left this morning kind of upset her,' he saw Jack and Danny look at each other and then back at him, he explained further 'her ex fiancée seems to be in some sort of trouble and has called her a couple of times wanting her to help him. She got another call this morning and it rattled her a bit'

Danny looked at his watch; 'Well it didn't show in court, but I reckon they will be breaking for lunch at around 1pm so you could give her a call then'

'You might not have time', Viv and Sam were approaching rapidly, 'we've just had a call to say a woman has been abducted in Westchester…………..'

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

At 8:30am the following morning Martin and Danny sat in the waiting area of Mount Sinai Hospital where Louise Davidson was being checked over, both wanting to make sure she was OK before leaving her in the care of her family and returning to the office;

_FLASHBACK_

_Louise Davidson, mother of three and the wife of Gavin Davidson, a wealthy Wall Street Broker, had been kidnapped returning home from her morning workout at her country club gym. A ransom demand for $5 million had arrived shortly after with instructions that the money be wired by 9am the following morning to an account in Grand Caymen. _

_Jack had spent his time at the Davidson's home dealing with Gavin Davidson. Davidson, clearly used to getting his own way, was furious that the FBI were involved claiming that he believed that this increased his wife's chances of being killed, however Jack suspected that his rage had more to do with having something to hide, a view seemingly confirmed when the background checks carried out by Martin and Danny threw up a long term mistress in an east side apartment plus evidence that Davidson had been moving money off shore._

_Viv and Sam had concentrated on Louise but from their investigations it became apparent that she was content in her life was an excellent mother and corporate wife and seemingly had no enemies._

_As the time for the ransom payment approached Jack had become increasingly convinced that Davidson was behind the whole thing as a means of getting the last of his money away from his wife; Viv and Sam had run checks on Davidson's mistress, Teresa Montague and these had shown an ex-boyfriend with a record which included assault and attempted kidnapping. _

_Teresa was interviewed at length and her apartment was searched. A diary was found that set out the whole plan she and Davidson had hatched; faced with this evidence she gave up Davidson plus her ex-boyfriend who had been hired to kidnap Louise. Upon raiding the address she gave, Danny, Viv and Martin found Louise alive and unharmed; Jack and Sam had the pleasure of arresting Gavin Davidson._

_END OF FLASHBACK_

'God, I hope we don't get another case today' Danny was slouched down in the chair, long legs stretched out in front of him, his chin resting on his chest.

'Hmm', Martin took another sip of his coffee, eyed it in distaste before standing up and emptying it into the bin next to the coffee machine, 'that was disgusting'

Danny grinned, he could drink his coffee any way it came, but Martin struggled to drink the muck that vending machines invariably served, 'You should be used to it by now, it's no worse than the stuff that comes out of the machine on our floor'

Martin shrugged and Danny saw him pull his phone from his pocket then look up again at the notice on the wall before putting the phone back in his pocket, frustration etched on his face;

'**All cellular phones must remain switched off on his floor'**

'I'll wait and speak to the Doctor, you go and phone Maggie and I'll meet you at the car'

Martin hesitated for a moment then, seeing the bemused look on Danny's face, pulled a wry face and headed for the exit.

When Danny had finished speaking to the Doctor and made sure that Louise had someone with her he headed to where they had parked the car; he could see Martin standing next to it, the phone to his ear looking worried. He ended the call as Danny approached;

'You OK, did you speak to her?'

'No, I can't reach her; I've tried her at home, on the cell and at her office, nothing'

Danny could see the worry in Martin's eyes and couldn't blame him; 'What about messages, has she left a message for you?'

'The last message I got was at 6pm yesterday when she was leaving the courthouse. She said that closing went well and that she was headed home and would call me before she went to bed but she hasn't called'

Danny didn't bother to ask if this was unusual; he knew Martin well enough by now to know that he didn't overreact to things like this; if he was worried, he had a reason to be………….

Martin continued, 'What if she went to meet Robert and something happened?'

'Do you know his number; can you call him and see if he knows anything?'

Martin started to open his mouth to reply when his cell rang; he grabbed it quickly 'Fitzgerald'

He listened for a minute, his face darkening; 'No, I haven't heard from her either', he listened again, 'yes, I'll do that and I'll call you as soon as I've checked'

He looked up at Danny; 'That was her office, she hasn't shown up at court and no-one has heard from her, I said I'd swing by the apartment and check it out'

Danny stared at him for a moment and knew both of them were thinking the worst; he pulled himself together; 'Come on, we'll ring Jack on the way and let him know what we are doing, you keep calling her cell in case she's just been stuck on the subway without a signal'

The rush hour traffic was easing but the journey was still slow and Danny could feel Martin's frustration building; Danny had managed to reach Viv to let her know what was going on and she had promised to try and track down Robert to see if he knew anything. Eventually they reached the apartment and headed up to the 6th floor; Danny noticed that Martin had a key, a fact that would have been worth a few sarky comments if the circumstances hadn't been as they were.

The door to the apartment was closed and all was quiet, in fact everything was very normal except for the blood stain on the door handle……………….Danny saw Martin's face and grabbed his arm; 'It could be nothing, you know, a paper cut or something as she left this morning, there's no blood trail' he saw Martin take a deep breath and nod, then insert the key into the door and turn it slowly.

The door opened and Danny went in first…………'shit'; Martin followed quickly and could see the signs of a struggle; Danny entered the living room and the shock stopped him for a heartbeat then the training kicked in; 'one down'………………………….

All Martin could see was Maggie lying on the floor, curled up as if she was trying to protect herself and blood everywhere, on the floor, on the wall and on her, he knelt by her side and checked for a pulse……………….

Danny had gone past Maggie, checking the kitchen, the bedroom and the bathroom; 'Clear', he returned at a run; 'Is she alive?' Martin didn't respond, instead he just stared at him blankly. Danny knelt down and checked for a pulse and felt relief flood him as he found one; he sat back and pulled out his cell, 'This is Special Agent Taylor with the FBI, I need an ambulance and the police……………………..'


	6. Chapter 6

'Danny'

Danny swung around to see Jack walking rapidly toward him, 'How is she?'

Danny shrugged helplessly and waved his hand toward the window of the trauma room; 'I don't know, she's still being worked on. They've let Martin in there but….' He stopped, the frustration he was feeling showing on his face.

Jack stared through the window; he could see the monitor Maggie was attached to; lines and numbers moving and changing; he took a step forward as he saw a flat line appear and heard the sound of an alarm……………………;

'She's crashing, 1mg of adrenalin and charge the paddles to 250',

'Clear'

Jack could see the paddles being pressed to Maggie's chest, he saw her body jerk……..

'No output, charging again'

'Clear'

Jack could see Martin, his back toward them, his body rigid………

'No output, charging to 360'

'Clear'

'Still no output'

Jack could feel the tension radiating off Danny as he moved restlessly next to him and heard him whisper softly 'come on'

'Charging again at 360'

'Clear'

Her body jerked again

'We have sinus rhythm';

The flat line was replaced with a jagged one, the alarm replaced with the steady beep they had heard before;

'Christ', Jack's heart was pounding…. he looked at Danny;

Danny met his eyes, his face white, unable to speak; they both turned back to watch the scene unfolding before them

A nurse rushed past holding some chest x-rays and placed them on the light box. A cluster of people were looking at them, pointing to a dark shadow clearly visible on the right hand side. Another flurry of activity and Jack and Danny watched with horrified fascination as a large syringe was plunged into Maggie's chest and then rapidly began to fill with blood.

Another figure entered the room and a discussion took place, then they watched as Maggie was rushed out of the room and toward the elevator; they could see the incubation tube in her mouth, her face smeared with blood, her eyes closed…………

One of the blue clad figures was speaking to Martin and then he moved toward the elevator too;

'Doctor'

The doctor stopped and looked at Jack who was displaying his ID; 'Agents Malone and Taylor, FBI, can you tell me what's going on?'

'We've manage to stabilise Ms Carlisle as much as we can and she's going up to theatre. She has a broken shoulder, a fractured cheek bone, severe head trauma and several broken ribs; the broken ribs have led to a punctured right lung and she's bleeding internally,' he paused and glanced toward Martin who was still stood in the trauma room, slowly removing the gown he had been wearing and then looked back toward Danny and Jack, 'look I won't pull any punches, the broken bones we can fix but the major problem is the head trauma. It's caused a swelling on her brain and all we can do is wait and hope that the damage is not too severe. We'll let you have an update as soon as we know any more.' He nodded at them and headed toward the elevator.

Jack and Danny stood in silence, staring at each other and then both turned toward Martin as he walked slowly through the door, his face blank. He looked at the two of them; 'Have you found him?'

Jack shook his head; 'Sam and Viv are trying to track him down, as soon as we know anything I'll let you know,' he paused and then reached into his pocket and produced a piece of paper and held it out toward Martin, 'you need to see this'

Martin took it from him and stared at it for a second before looking at Jack; 'what is it?'

'It's a form Maggie had to complete for her new job that gives emergency contact and 'next of kin' details, she only got around to filling it in at the start of the week; she's listed her next of kin as her parents …………… and you'

Jack looked at Martin to see if he understood the significance of this but there was no change in his expression, he reached his hand out and placed it on Martin's arm and tried to pick his words carefully, 'it means that if any decisions need to be made then you are authorised to make them'

Martin flinched slightly as the meaning behind these words sank home, and he shook his head, 'Her parents will be here soon….', but Jack interrupted before he could finish;

'Her parents are on a flight from LA to Australia and won't land for another 6 hours, then we have to get them back here, so it will be 24 hours if not more before they land in New York.' He saw the horrified look on Martin's face, 'Look I don't want to add to your worries but your parents are on their way here'

Jack didn't know what to expect as he imparted this last piece of news; he could see from Danny's face that he was expecting Martin to be less than happy but Martin just nodded. Danny pointed towards some chairs; 'why don't we sit down'

Martin shook his head, 'no I want to go upstairs in case……….' He stopped and stared at the floor, his hands clenched tightly. He took a deep steadying breath and then looked at Danny and Jack, his eyes filled with rage, 'just find that bastard'

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

'So what do we know about Robert…………..' Sam checked her notes and steadied herself as Viv hurled the car through a gap in the morning traffic, 'er……..Kenilworth?'

'Started work as Special Legal Council to the Mayor's Office 6 months ago. Previously he was a Senior Legal Council in the Attorney General's office. Martin told Danny that he took the New York job because he plans to run for a New York congressional seat in a couple of year's time.'

Sam raised her eyebrows, 'A high flyer then'

'So it would appear'

'What's the story between him and Maggie?'

'I don't know much about that, Danny got some information from Martin but apparently he and Maggie hadn't really discussed it. What we do know is that they got engaged last year and the wedding should have been taking place this coming weekend but it was called off, by Maggie we think, about 4 months ago. We don't know any specific reason, all Maggie told Martin was that Robert changed when he moved to New York and that was the reason the engagement ended'

Sam made notes as best she could; 'Didn't Martin say something about Robert calling Maggie?'

'Yes, He told Danny that Robert called her at around 1am on the night we were all on the Lieberman stakeout. Apparently Robert was very upset and wanted to see her but she refused and told him to call back the following day; he didn't so she called him that evening but he told her he was too busy to talk. He rang again early yesterday morning but apparently they didn't hear the call; he left a message which Martin heard as well, very upset saying that he needed her help. Martin knows she left a message for Robert to call her back but he hasn't spoken to her since and so doesn't know if Maggie spoke to him or arranged to meet him.'

Sam jotted these last details down as the car pulled up outside the Mayor's Office; 'You know, this could be about him being angry that she called the wedding off, I mean her father's a major player in the Republican Party, he wants the Republican nomination for Congress, he's pissed when his easy ticket walks out the door….' she climbed out of the car.

Viv joined her on the sidewalk looking thoughtful, 'Yes, but it doesn't explain why he was sounding so upset on the phone'

Sam considered this for a moment, 'maybe that was a smokescreen, you know, if he can make her believe he's in trouble she would be more likely to meet him.'

They walked into the lobby and up to the reception desk; 'Special Agent Johnson, Special Agent Spade. We need to see Robert Kenilworth'

The receptionist looked warily at them and then dialled a number; 'Mr Lawton, I have two FBI Agents here wanting to speak to Mr Kenilworth', she listened for a moment then, 'Thank you sir'

She smiled hesitantly at Viv, 'Mr Kenilworth is not in today but Mr Lawton will see you. If you take the elevator to the 14th floor someone will meet you.' she indicated toward the elevator and handed them both a pass; 'if you could wear these please.'

Sam and Viv rode the elevator to the 14th floor in silence, not wanting to discuss the case in front of the other occupants of the car. They emerged from the elevator and found a young woman waiting for them; she flashed them a cool professional smile; 'Hello, I'm Joanne Kirk, Mr Lawton's Personal Assistant. If you would like to follow me', she led them down a corridor and then into a meeting room

'Can I get you anything to drink?'

'No thank you, but you can tell us where Robert Kenilworth is'

Joanne barely looked at Sam, a dismissive tone to her voice, 'I have no idea but I am sure Mr Lawton will be able to help, he'll be with you in a moment', and with that she turned and left the room.

Sam raised an eyebrow at Viv, 'Hmm, natives aren't exactly friendly; I think we're likely to need a warrant if we want to look in his office,'

Viv nodded, already on the phone to the FBI legal team to see if one could be arranged. As she finished speaking a man walked through the door. He looked to be in his late 30's, was maybe 5ft 10inches tall and was dressed in what Sam was sure was a very expensive suit. His dark blonde hair was cut short and his pale blue eyes were cold and watchful as he smiled at them.

'Good morning ladies, I understand you are looking for Robert?'

Viv and Sam exchanged glances and then Viv returned his false smile with one of her own, 'Special Agent Johnson, Special Agent Spade,' they both showed him their badges, 'and yes we are looking for Robert Kenilworth, who are you?' she spoke bluntly and Sam saw a look of annoyance cross his face before the smile was firmly back in place again

'My name is Charles Lawton, I am the Senior Deputy Legal Council to the Mayor' he sounded as self important as he looked; Sam put a mildly amused look on her face as she asked,

'That's a fancy title Mr Lawton, what does it mean?'

His jaw tightened but he managed to keep the smile in place even as his eyes looked furious; 'it means that I am Robert's no 2'

'Well that's nice but we need to see Mr Kenilworth urgently, where is he?'

He looked at them for a moment, a slightly mocking look appearing briefly in his eyes before being replaced with false concern, 'Well, actually, I'm glad you are here, we were just about to call the FBI and report him missing'

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

'Have we heard anything from the hospital?'

Jack arrived at the conference table where Danny, Sam and Viv were waiting for him. He looked at Danny and nodded slightly;

'She's out of surgery and apparently it went well. Martin said they have scheduled a head CT for later today so they can assess the head trauma……' Jack stopped and shrugged his shoulders slightly.

They were all silent for a moment then Jack pulled out a chair and sat down; 'Right, ordinarily Maggie's attack would be investigated by the NYPD but because of the possible link to Robert Kenilworth and the fact that he has been reported _missing_,' the expression on his face and the tone of his voice suggested that Jack found this a little too much of a coincidence, 'we are obviously involved. I've spoken to the Lieutenant in charge of the investigation and we have agreed that we will investigate Robert Kenilworth and his possible involvement as we are looking for the scum bag anyway. They will look at all other possibilities including any link to an old case of Maggie's where she has upset the wrong person, that sort of thing.'

He opened a file and took out a report; 'I've had the initial crime scene report,' he looked at Danny before continuing, 'the amount of blood at the scene has raised some eyebrows. There is way too much for it to have just come from Maggie and we know that she wasn't stabbed or shot. The initial analysis indicates that there are two blood types present; Maggie's, which is type AB negative, and another which is type A positive; the amount of AB negative blood present at the scene is consistent with the injuries that Maggie sustained however the majority of the blood that was found is type A positive.'

'So whoever was there was badly injured'

'Yes and the scene of crime people found a kitchen knife that looked as if it had been used to stab someone with and that's being analysed at the moment. Hopefully we can lift some prints from it.'

'There wasn't any blood trail from the apartment; there was some blood on the door handle but that was it' Danny leaned forward as he spoke

Jack sat back and looked at them, 'I've spoken to the CSI running the case and whilst he is reluctant to say much at such an early stage of the investigation he gave me his unofficial initial conclusions from the blood trail,' they were all listening to him intently, he continued; 'his guess is that someone knocked on the door, Maggie opened it with the key chain on and they forced the door open.. He thinks this is where she probably sustained the broken shoulder and cheekbone judging by the blood stain on the inside of the door. It looks as if they dragged her into the living room and that another attack took place there,' he saw Danny, Viv and Sam look at each other;

'Jack, was she……., was she,'

He interrupted before Danny could get the words out; 'The hospital did a rape kit, it was negative', he saw the tension ease slightly from all of them.

'OK, so he attacked her in the living room; that's where we found her and there was a hell of a lot of blood there and in the bedroom, bathroom and kitchen' Danny frowned, staring at Jack

'Well, he thinks that somehow Maggie got away long enough to grab a knife and stab her assailant, probably in the kitchen, then he thinks she made it to the bathroom and locked the door. The blood in the bathroom is all AB negative and the blood on the outside of the bathroom door is all A positive. It looks like whoever attacked her tried to get in but the blood loss had weakened them and they couldn't; eventually they realised that they needed help, cleaned themselves up as best they could and left. At this point it looks as if Maggie came out of the bathroom but collapsed in the living room before she could get help.'

'And no-one heard anything?' Sam sounded incredulous

'NYPD have carried out door to door. There are reports of a disturbance around 11:30pm last night but no-one called it in. The surveillance tapes for the building are being processed as we speak, hopefully we can get something from them.' Jack sounded frustrated.

'OK, well Sam and I visited the Mayor's office and met with a Charles Lawton who is Robert Kenilworth's deputy. He claims that no-one has seen Kenilworth since he attended a meeting at the office at 7:30am yesterday which lasted until midday. Then he left the office claiming he was going to meet someone for lunch and told his secretary to re-arrange his afternoon appointments as he didn't think he would be back in time for them. He hasn't answered his phone when they've tried to contact him, and he hasn't returned any messages. His doorman confirms that he did not go back to his apartment yesterday. We have forensics in there now and I'm waiting for his phone records and credit card and bank information.' As Viv finished speaking Jack's cell phone rang

'Yes', he listened for a minute, 'OK we'll be right there', he ended the call and stood up

'Tech have found something on the video surveillance from Maggie's apartment'; Danny, Viv and Sam all leapt to their feet and followed him to the tech office

'OK, here we have Maggie arriving home at 6:37pm', Mac paused the footage and enlarged the image of Maggie stood by the elevator; her phone was to her ear and she appeared to be annoyed at whatever was being said to her

Sam made a note of the time; 'I'll check her phone records when they come through and see who she was speaking to'

Jack looked at Danny, 'I don't suppose we know what time she finished in court?'

'Yeh, we do, I spoke to Judge Goodwin earlier, he said he sent the Jury out at 5:35pm and then he saw both Maggie and Childs in his chambers until 5:50pm. Apparently it was just something procedural, nothing out of the ordinary. He said Maggie was fine and that she had said she was heading straight home. Martin said she called him at 6pm to let him know she was just leaving the courthouse so the timeline fits.'

'OK,' Jack looked at Mac, 'what else have you found?'

'OK, well we have a lot of people coming home from work all of whom are confirmed as residents; then we have some food delivery's, again, all of these check out until we get to here' Mac paused the tape as they saw a tall man in jeans, trainers and blue hooded jacket arrive. The hood was pulled up and it was impossible to see his face.

'Now watch this', Mac advanced the footage frame by frame; they saw him get into the elevator, the doors close and then they could see the numbers above the elevator door lighting up as the elevator ascended until it stopped on floor 6; the time code in the corner was 11:28pm.

'That's got to be our man' Viv was watching the screen intently, 'do we know when he left?'

'Yeh, and this time he gives us a bit more to go on'; Mac advanced the tape until the timeframe showed 11:57pm and then he again advanced it frame by frame.

They saw the numbers above the elevator door start to descend from floor 6 and then the door opened and a man emerged;

'What's that he's wearing?' Jack stared at the screen as the figure emerged from the elevator wearing a heavy jacket.

Sam leant forward, 'blow that up will you', she stared at the enlarged image. 'that's Martin's jacket.'

She looked at Jack and saw him give her a strange look before he switched his gaze back to the figure on the screen. The film continued to advance frame by frame showing the figure exiting the elevator with difficulty, a phone clamped to his ear. They man reached the door and appeared to stumble and grabbed hold of the wall before forcing himself upright again. Mac paused the tape

'I've already spoken to the crime scene team and they have checked out the wall, they say there is a clear print there and they are running it now,' he moved the cursor and enlarged a portion of the image, 'but this is what I think you will be interested in'

The portion of the image he had enlarged was of the doors onto the street…………and reflected in their tinted glass was a clear image of their suspect

There was silence for a minute as they all stared at the face on the screen, then Viv pulled out a picture of Robert Kenilworth and held it up for comparison; 'Well I don't know who he is, but he's not Robert Kenilworth'


	7. Chapter 7

They all stared at the image on the screen for a moment……….

'Right, Danny, Viv I need the two of you to get me everything you can on Robert Kenilworth, and whilst you're at it I want a complete background check on Maggie', Jack saw the surprised looks on the faces of Sam, Danny and Viv at this dictate and waited a moment to see if he was going to get any objections but none came. Waving a hand toward the screen he continued, 'and find out who the hell he is'.

He turned to Sam, not quite meeting her eyes, 'Sam, you and I will check out Robert Kenilworth's apartment', with that Jack abruptly turned and left the tech room.

Sam stood for a moment staring after him; he hadn't met her eye, he had looked uncomfortable………… she groaned to herself; she had known that eventually they would have to discuss what had happened on Monday night but surely he wouldn't expect to talk now, not with all that was going on. She saw the questioning look in Viv's eyes and the concern in Danny's; she smiled weakly, shrugged her shoulders awkwardly and edged toward the door, 'I…I'll see you both later then', she could feel their eyes watching her as she headed toward the elevator to meet Jack.

Viv and Danny headed for the bull pen after printing off a copy of the image of Maggie's attacker. Danny placed it on the suspects' board and turned back to his desk, only to find Viv stood behind him blocking his path. The look in her eye told Danny what she wanted to know before she had even asked the question;

'What's going on between Sam and Jack?'

'How would I know?' he gave her his best 'wide eyed innocent' look. The look she gave him in return told him she didn't buy for one minute that he didn't know something.

He sighed, 'OK, look, I don't know much. I saw them at Luciano's on Monday night; Jack was holding her hand and it looked like a fairly intense discussion. I asked her about it and she said that she knew what it looked like but she swore nothing was going on, and that's all I know.'

Danny could see the disapproval on Viv's face, 'Come on, they're both single, if it puts them both in a better mood….' He trailed off seeing the disgusted look she was sending him;

'They have rules about this sort of thing for a reason. If it gets out, and it _will_ get out', she shot him a look before he could interrupt, 'Jack will lose his job and Sam can kiss goodbye to her career too, not to mention that it places a lot of strain on the team.'

Danny started to laugh, 'places a lot of strain on the team? It can't 'place more strain' than at the moment…..ever since Martin and Sam split Jack's been acting like a complete jerk around her'

'Exactly, and can you imagine how it will be if they start seeing each other again?'

Danny shrugged, 'well I guess that one of them would have to transfer, I mean, like you say, they can't see each other officially if Jack's her supervisory agent and I assume that neither of them is stupid enough to think they could keep it secret for long.' He pointedly let his eyes stray toward the pictures on the board; 'Why don't I pull together the information we have on Robert and you get going on Maggie and tech will let us know when we have something on that print'

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Sam sat staring out of the side window as Jack drove them to Robert's apartment; she sensed he wanted to talk and hoped against hope he wouldn't start now…………

'You've been avoiding me'; by his tone he could have been commenting on the weather, but he wasn't, this was about what had happened on Monday and Sam felt herself tense.

She turned slightly so that she could see him out of the corner of her eye; he looked relaxed as he kept his eyes fixed on the road ahead but she knew he wasn't. She hesitated, the desire to prevaricate was strong, but………..

'Yes'

Jack snorted and turned to look at her, 'Well that was honest'

Her mouth twisted into a reluctant smile and she glanced at him, 'Yes'

'Sam we do need to talk'

'I know Jack but do you really think this is the time or the place'

'So when is?'

Sam glared at him, 'well for a start when we aren't investigating the attempted murder of Martin's girlfriend'

'That bother's you doesn't it? You said you were over him' his tone was accusing

She stared open mouthed at him for a moment, the unfairness of the accusation having rendered her speechless, but not for long………… 'He's a friend for god's sake; he's sitting next to his girlfriend's bed in the ICU waiting to see if she's ever going to wake up and you want to talk about……………..', she was struggling to get the words out and contented herself by turning angrily away from him and staring out of the side window.

'You recognised his jacket…….'

'Oh for god's sake', she was shouting now, a furious look on her face, 'of course I recognised his jacket, I saw him wear it often enough, or would you rather I told you about all of the times I stripped it off him before we screwed each other senseless'

He stared at her, shocked by her outburst. She glared at him; 'No, thought not, so can we park the car and go and look at this apartment and leave this discussion until a more appropriate time.'

Jack parked the car and they sat in silence for a moment. Without looking at her, Jack opened the car door; he hesitated before getting out; 'we do need to talk Sam'

The slamming of her car door was the only answer he got.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

'How are you getting on with the phone records?' Viv glanced across at Danny. He was sitting at the conference table surrounded by paper and looking increasingly fed up. Seeing the disgruntled look he threw her she smiled; 'that good huh?'

'None of this makes any sense at all', he pulled open one of the files, 'I've cross checked the two calls that we know Robert made to Maggie against his cell phone and apartment phone records and neither of the calls came from those numbers. Then I looked at Maggie's phone records and both of the calls actually came from a pre paid cell phone' Danny ran his hands through his hair as he looked at Viv

'So are we saying Robert didn't make those calls?'

'Well the calls came in at the times Maggie told Martin about so someone made them and I can't think about why she would lie about _who_ made them, anyway Martin heard one of them'

'Hmm, but Martin wouldn't necessarily recognise Robert's voice would he' Viv was looking thoughtful.

Danny shrugged, 'true, but I have found a call that was made to Maggie that did originate from Robert's home phone', he pushed a piece of paper across the table to Viv, 'it was made two days before she left Washington to move to New York at 2:29am and lasted 20 seconds so either it went to the message service or she hung up on him'

'Can't imagine why she'd hang up on him if he called her at 2:29am' Danny grinned at the sarcasm in Viv's voice.

'OK, so we have an unidentified cell phone; do we have a breakdown of the calls made to and from it?'

'Yes, and it gets weirder; the prepaid cell only received calls from one other number which was also a prepaid cell phone and, other than the two calls made to Maggie, only called that same number. I've checked the records for the second pre paid cell, and it was only used to make and received calls to the first pre paid cell phone', Danny glanced at Viv and saw she was looking confused, he continued, 'not only that, the numbers are only one digit apart, and just to finish the whole thing off, neither cell was used prior to two weeks ago and neither has been used since 2pm yesterday, one and half hours after Robert was last seen.'

'If I wanted to be able to contact someone but didn't want anyone else to know I was speaking to them, or that I was speaking to them so often, I would use a prepaid cell, wouldn't you?' Viv stared at Danny, who was nodding his head in agreement.

'I'm trying to find out where they were bought from, hopefully that might help us establish who bought them but if they paid cash we're going to be struggling' Danny groaned, 'other than that though the phone records don't show anything unusual, how are you getting on with the background check on Maggie?'

Viv sighed, 'again, nothing to raise any red flags. She's never been in any trouble with the authorities, she pays her taxes, no traffic violations, excellent academic record and contributes to a number of charities; the only thing I can find is a stay in a clinic after her first year at law school'

'Drugs, alcohol?' Danny looked surprised

'No this is a clinic that specialises in treating stress and depression', Viv shrugged her shoulders at Danny, 'maybe law school got too much for her and she needed some help'

'Maybe'

The phone rang and Viv picked it up; 'Johnson'

She listened for a moment, 'thank you.' She put the phone down; 'we have an ID on the man who attacked Maggie. His name is Kevin Brown and he has a record, including possession, theft and assault'

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Jack and Sam approached Robert's apartment cautiously. The scene of crime officers were waiting for them plus a couple of NYPD uniforms.

'Has there been any movement from inside?'

'No sir and the doorman confirms that Mr Kenilworth hasn't been back to the apartment since he left for work yesterday morning'

'OK, Sam you take the left side, I'll take the right'; Jack nodded to the uniformed officer, 'when you are ready'

The uniformed officer kicked the door hard and it flew open; Jack entered first, with Sam close behind; it was obvious that the apartment had been ransacked, drawers were open, and letters and paper littered the floor. They moved methodically through the rooms checking each in turn until only the bathroom off the master bedroom was left.

Jack threw open the door...'one down'

Sam arrived to see the sight that had greeted Jack; a man was lying in the bathtub, he was obviously dead although there was very little blood to be seen, however the thing that caught Sam's attention was the jacket he was wearing

'That's the man who attacked Maggie' she stared at him, noticing how his face was twisted in pain.

Jack nodded and opened his mouth just as his cell phone rang

'Malone'

'Oh hey Viv' he listened, then 'right well we know where he is…………….'

He looked at Sam and indicated toward the body in the bathtub, 'meet Kevin Brown'


	8. Chapter 8

'Agent Taylor, sorry to keep you waiting' Henry Saunders stood up as Danny entered his office and held out his hand, 'it's terrible news about Robert, what can I do to help you?'

Danny shook the hand being held out to him and gave Henry Saunders, billionaire owner of Saunders Construction, a once over.

He had seen his photo in the paper often enough, who hadn't? He was one of the richest men in Manhattan and married to Julia Adams a 30 something ex-supermodel turned philanthropist. Danny remembered rushing out and buying Sports Illustrated the year she had made the cover of the swimsuit edition.

Saunders had a smooth, tanned face that told of his time spent in his house in the Hamptons in the summer months (according to the New York Post, worth over £10million) or his ski chalet in Vail in the winter (apparently worth £5million). His clothes, his watch, his cuff links all screamed money as did his office with its original art work and antique furniture. Danny was sure that his whole apartment would probably fit into the room he was standing in now.

Saunders indicated that Danny should sit down and resumed his seat behind his desk, the expression on his face suggested that he wanted nothing more than to help the FBI but Danny couldn't shake off the feeling that the last thing Saunders intended to do was help him.

He pasted a professional smile onto his face; 'Thank you for your time Mr Saunders. I understand that you and Mr Kenilworth are both involved in the Cecily Taylor-Saunders Memorial Charity, which as I understand it is a children's charity set up in honour of your late Mother?'

'Yes that's right. When Robert moved to New York we were introduced by mutual friends. He expressed an interest in aiding our charitable work and we had a vacant seat on the committee so he came on board around 6 months or so ago.'

'And how has that been working out?' Danny couldn't shake the feeling that he was being played with.

'Robert has been a fantastic asset to the charity. He's a marvellous organiser and with his Washington contacts we have seen a 30 percent increase in donations over the last 6 months, obviously, this has been of huge benefit to the children we help.'

Danny nodded, 'You must be pleased. Would you say that you and Mr Kenilworth have become friends?' He watched for a reaction and thought that he may have seen a slight flicker of something in his eyes…………..

'I would say we have developed a friendship over and above our mutual interest in the charity'

Danny waited to see if Saunders would say anything else but he didn't.

'How often would you say you socialised with each other?'

'Well we belong to the same racket ball club and we usually meet for a game once a week and then dinner after and I would say we probably have lunch once a week as well. In addition, we move in the same social circles and so often meet at charitable functions, house parties, dinner parties and the like.'

Danny regarded him thoughtfully; 'Did you ever meet Maggie Carlisle?'

Saunders appeared to hesitate for a moment then his face took on concerned look; 'Yes, we did meet her once. The first function after Robert joined the committee was a black tie dinner. Obviously at this point Robert and Ms Carlisle were still engaged and she accompanied him to the event', he hesitated as if he was choosing his words carefully, 'they didn't seem well suited to me, she seemed uninterested in his career. As I'm sure you know, he plans to run for congress within the next couple of years; it's important that an aspiring politician have a loving and supportive spouse by his side and I got the feeling that Ms Carlisle was more interested in her own career rather than in supporting Robert in his'

Danny stared at him for a moment, wondering if the idea of sexual equality had bypassed the man completely; 'Right, so you weren't surprised when Maggie called off the engagement then?' He watched as Saunders seemed to find this amusing;

'Agent Taylor, Ms Carlisle didn't call off the engagement, Robert did' his condescending tone had Danny itching to plant a fist in his supercilious face. He managed to control the impulse.

'Do you know why he ended the relationship?'

'I suggested to Robert that he should do a complete background check on her, you can't be too careful in politics these days, and when he got the report back he discovered that she had an abortion the summer before she started at law school. He's a right wing politician who supports the right to life, as does the charity he is involved in. If it got out that his wife had terminated a pregnancy it would have been disastrous for him so he ended the relationship.' Saunders sat back and smiled at Danny as if this was the most normal thing in the world.

Danny struggled not to let the dislike he felt for this man show on his face. He glanced down at his notes, took a deep breath and looked up at Saunders; 'When was the last time you saw Robert Kenilworth?'

Saunders looked thoughtful; 'Well, we saw each other the night before Robert disappeared; a discussion about some committee business and then we had a quick drink, we must have parted at around 10pm. That was the last time I saw him; we spoke the following day around 1pm…….' Saunders stopped suddenly and Danny saw something flicker briefly in his eyes, then, 'actually I think I've got that wrong, I think I've confused the day…………..' he opened an appointment book in front of him, 'yes, that's right I was at lunch yesterday with my solicitor to discuss some business we are doing with the city so it can't have been yesterday I spoke to Robert, I do apologise.'

Danny looked at him thoughtfully; many things give a liar away, their breathing pattern, perspiration, a flicker of their eyes; Danny was an expert at spotting the signs. Saunders was good; in fact he was very good. Danny was fairly sure he had lied about his friendship with Robert and the reason for Robert and Maggie splitting up but he knew most of his 'evidence' was his instinct telling him that he was being lied to, but he was certain, _absolutely_ certain that Saunders had just lied about when he had last spoken to Robert.

He smiled again, not letting a hint of his suspicion show on his face or in the tone of his voice; 'No need to apologise, I'm sure that given your busy schedule it is a struggle remembering what happens on any given day', he noticed a tightening of Saunders mouth and a flash of anger in his eyes at this; Danny smiled to himself, the guy clearly needed to feel that he was in control and having to admit a mistake, however trivial, wasn't something he liked doing.

Danny stood up and held out his hand, 'Well I think that's everything; thank you for your time Mr Saunders.' Saunders stood up, the smile firmly in place as he shook Danny's hand. Danny started to walk to the door then turned as if he had just remembered something,

'You know what, I meant to ask you if you had noticed any change in his behaviour recently, you know was he unhappy, anxious…..?'

He watched Saunders reaction carefully. He thought he saw a hint of annoyance before the smooth mask went back into place, 'I can't say I noticed anything in particular', Saunders paused and Danny watched him assume a concerned demeanor , a concern that Danny was certain was faked, 'but I know he was unhappy about Ms Carlisle moving to New York.'

'Why was that?' Danny could feel his dislike growing by the minute

'Well he had mentioned that she had taken the break up very badly and had begged him to try again, in fact he intimated that she was almost blackmailing him'

Danny stared at him, glad that they were separated by at least 10 feet because the desire to flatten the smug bastard was overwhelming; 'Blackmailing him?' he made no attempt to keep the disbelief from his voice.

Again, he saw that flicker of anger in Saunders eye before he could hide it, 'Yes, apparently she threatened that she would make sure he would never get the nomination for the congressional seat in New York. You know that her father chairs the Republican Nominations Committee?'

'I'm well aware of who her father is Mr Saunders. When was this threat made?'

'As I understand it, about a week before she moved to New York'

'OK, well, again, thank you for your time. If you think of anything else you think might, er, _help_, you will be sure and call me won't you?' Danny walked out of the office certain of two things; one, that almost every word Saunders had said was a lie, and two, that he didn't appear concerned about Robert Kenilworth's whereabouts.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

'How did it go?'

Danny looked up to see Jack and Sam sat at the conference table with Viv; he pulled a face, 'He's a lying bastard and he defintely hiding something and I'm going to find out what'

Jack nodded and indicated the remaining seat at the table, 'we were just about to run through the evidence to see where we are'

Danny dropped his jacket over his desk chair and moved to take the seat that Jack had indicated, 'have we heard anything from Martin?'

Viv nodded, 'they've done the head CT and there's nothing showing on it that indicates a problem but, they've been warned that with head trauma, until she wakes up, they can't be certain of anything.'

Danny nodded, 'well I suppose that's about as good as it's going to be at this stage; how's Martin holding up?'

Sam shrugged, 'I think he would be holding up a lot better if his parents weren't there, he said they're driving him mad'

Danny saw the look Jack gave her as he realised that she must have spoken to Martin, he also saw how Sam deliberately ignored him. The tension between the two of them was apparent to him, and by the look on her face, it was apparent to Viv too; Danny realised that he was starting to agree with Viv's view on Sam and Jack's 'relationship' and its effect on the team.

Jack seemed to pull himself together; 'Right lets review where we are', he looked at Viv, 'what have we found out from Maggie's background check.

'OK, she has an excellent academic record, she was headhunted by some of the premier law firms in the country when she graduated; Lewis, Holden and Rodgers offered her a starting salary of £250,000, plus a benefit package that makes you want to cry plus a guarantee of a partnership within 5 years.'

'And she turned it down for a slot in the DA's office?' Jack sounded incredulous

'I spoke to one of her old law professors, he told me that Maggie always wanted to be a prosecutor; she was never interested in private work. He said she was always honest enough to admit that the disparity in the money wasn't an issue for her because of her family's wealth.'

Viv checked her notes before continuing, 'I've looked at everything I can find, she pays her taxes on time, she doesn't have so much as a parking ticket, no debt, no unusual spending patterns. Other than the phone call's from Robert there is no unusual phone activity; we checked her email both home and work, again nothing unusual.'

'OK, well, what about her relationships with men?' Jack didn't sound particularly happy to be asking the question and none of the team looked happy either;

Viv sighed, 'I spoke to her class mates; she dated a couple of guys in college but nothing serious, but what I did learn was that she and Martin dated on and off through college as well'

Jack and Danny exchanged glances, 'He definitely said it finished the summer after high school didn't he? Jack was frowning

Danny looked thoughtful, 'actually, no he didn't he just didn't say that it carried on past the summer'

'Why tell us they dated in high school but not tell us they dated through college?

'Because of what happened after they graduated' Vivien reached into a box by the side of the table and produced a photo album and pushed it toward Jack and Danny.

Danny turned the pages looking at the combination of photos, tickets, leaflets and handwritten notes that told the story of the summer they had spent together after graduation. From the locations showing in the photos it was apparent that they had toured the west coast from Seattle to the Mexican border; 'so they spent the summer together', he looked at Viv, 'why's this so significant?'

'That I don't know yet but I found a postcard tucked into the back of the album; it's from Martin to Maggie. She took the postcard out and started to read;

_Maggie, I understand, really I do but don't push me away. I want to be there for you, I want to help, even if it just as a friend and not as your boyfriend. I love you and I always will, Martin._

Viv looked up, 'something happened during the summer and they split up, and until two weeks ago they haven't dated since.'

Danny looked uncomfortable; 'Henry Saunders told me that it was Robert, not Maggie, that ended the engagement and that he ended it because he found out she had an abortion the summer after she graduated'

They all sat in silence for a moment then Sam picked up the postcard that Viv had been reading from; 'well that would explain this' she waved the postcard slightly, 'but I don't see how it explains what happened to Maggie or to Robert'

Danny sighed, 'Saunders also said that Maggie wanted Robert to take her back and that she was blackmailing him by threatening she would stop him getting the republican nomination for the congressional seat'

They all stared, 'but that doesn't explain the phone call that Martin heard yesterday when Robert was saying he was in trouble and that only Maggie could help' Viv spoke slowly

'Unless it does, unless the 'trouble' was Robert realising that he couldn't get the nomination without Maggie but she's been punishing him, playing hard to get, making him jealous, by taking up with Martin again. Maybe she just pushed him too far and he set Kevin Brown on her to scare her, finds out it's gone too far and he makes a run for it' Jack ran his hands through his hair

Danny sat staring at one of the photos in the album; it showed Maggie sitting in Martin's arms, the caption underneath read _'Stinson Beach – pure bliss'_. They looked so happy together and he thought back to breakfast the previous day when he had teased her about how quickly she and Martin had got together and remembered her response; a shrug of her shoulders, a smile on her face and the words that had left him knowing with absolute certainty that she was in love with his friend; _'how long does it take to remember why you love someone'_.

He thought back to his meeting with Saunders and his certainty that the man was lying; he looked up; 'OK, so that could explain it but the problem is that I am absolutely certain that Henry Saunders was lying through his teeth, and if that's the case……' Danny looked at Jack who nodded grimly

'And if that's the case then we still don't know what really happened and why...'


	9. Chapter 9

'What about Robert Kenilworth, what have we found out from his background check?' Viv's question broke the silence that had fallen

Danny came out of his reverie, pulled out a file from the pile in front of him and opened it;

'OK, well I've done all the usual checks. He rents his apartment but is in the process of buying one, he has over $2million in funds plus he still owns a property in Georgetown worth $1.5million. His family is worth approximately $50million and he will eventually inherit half of that. We've spoken to most of his close business colleagues and also his friends…..' he paused while he checked a list, 'all except James Holland…'

'James Holland? _The_ James Holland?'

Danny was grinning now, 'Yes, _the_ James Holland. He and Robert were at Harvard together and have stayed in touch. Before he moved to New York they saw each other maybe twice a year but since he's moved here Robert has been visiting him in Atlantic City most weekends'

Jack raised his eyebrows in surprise, 'Most weekends? I don't see that playing well with the voters; a prospective congressional candidate who has close ties to a gambling tycoon and who likes to spend his downtime in a casino'

'Well there's no evidence that he gambles', Danny saw the sceptical look on Viv's face, 'I've checked his bank and credit card records there are no large sums leaving or entering his accounts. If he gambles it's a couple of hundred bucks on the slot machines.'

'So he goes all the way to Atlantic City to hang out with an old college friend?' Sam sounded as if she thought this highly unlikely

Danny shrugged, 'so it would appear. Anyway, Holland flew to Las Vegas yesterday for a meeting and is returning today. He's agreed to come here as soon as he lands', he glanced at his watch, 'actually he should be here within the next hour.'

Jack sighed, 'OK, Danny keep checking into Robert's background', he paused for a moment and, without quite meeting her eyes, 'Sam, you help Danny.' He looked at Viv, 'Viv you and I are going to check out Kevin Brown and see if we can find a connection to Robert'.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

'Right, OK, thanks Sam'; Viv flipped the phone shut and finished jotting down the information that Sam had just given her

'What have we got?' Jack turned to look at Viv

'Well, Kevin Brown was released on parole 6 months ago and he has a job working for Caldwell Construction as an electrical contractor. Sam has checked, he doesn't have a phone in his apartment and we can't find any registered cell phone but he could have a pre-paid one of course. She's checked for bank accounts and credit cards and can't find any record of him having either.'

The traffic began to move again and Jack switched his gaze back to the road, 'Hmm, not a hell of lot to go on is there?'

'No but hopefully we will get something from his apartment', Viv looked thoughtfully at Jack. He looked tired and his eyes showed the strain he was under; she hesitated a moment then decided to bite the bullet and just ask 'Jack, what's going on between you and Sam?

She saw the tightening of his jaw and waited for him to decide whether to answer her question. The silence lengthened, then;

'It's nothing'

'It's not nothing Jack, both Danny and I have picked up on it.'

Jack shook his head, his mouth a straight line; Viv could feel the anger bubbling up inside of her; 'You know we've been here before. I helped clear up your mess last time; I'm not doing it again. You and Sam need to sort yourselves out once and for all'

She could see the anger on his face. The traffic halted again and he turned to face her, his mouth opening but the words stilled on his tongue when he saw the expression on her face. She met his eyes unflinchingly and the silence lengthened until the traffic began to move again and he was forced to look away.

The silence continued as the traffic eased and they approached Kevin Brown's apartment in Queens. Jack parked the car, climbed out and joined Viv on the sidewalk; 'I've tried to talk to her, she won't discuss it.'

Viv stared at him for a moment before she realised that he was talking about Sam; 'when did you try and talk to her?' he remained silent and she frowned, 'oh please tell me you didn't try to talk to her when you went to Robert Kenilworth's apartment?' He shrugged which she took to be a confirmation

'Well, I'm not surprised she didn't want to talk then, it's hardly the right time is it?'

'Yeh, that's what she said'

The look she threw him told him that she thought he was an idiot; he stared at her for a moment then turned and walked toward the apartment block, 'come on, lets see what we can find'

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Danny leant his head back in the chair and ran his hands through his hair; tiredness was coming over him in waves and he was struggling to keep his eyes open. A mug of coffee and a sandwich appeared in front of him and he looked up to see an equally tired Sam sit down heavily in the chair next to him.

'Thanks, you read my mind'

She smiled but didn't say anything, instead she picked up her sandwich, played with it for bit and then put it back down;

'You not hungry?' Danny spoke through a mouthful of cheese and ham sandwich and still managed to sound surprised. Sam shook her head

'Not really'

He looked at her thoughtfully, 'What's up?' she started to shake her head again; 'don't say 'nothing' Sam; is it Martin, is it Jack or is it both of them?'

She stared at him, her face showing some of the turmoil inside her. Danny finished his sandwich and reached for his coffee; 'Sam, you can tell me to go to hell if you want but it might actually help to talk'

She dropped her gaze to the table; 'Jack and I had dinner on Monday night; he said he needed to ask me something……….as stupid as it sounds I assumed it was…..it was, well I don't know really but I didn't think it would be about………us' she sounded as if she couldn't believe how naïve she had been.

'He wants the two of you to, what, try again?'

'Yes'

Danny pursed his lips into a soundless whistle, 'and how do you feel about that?'

She hesitated and then shrugged her shoulders; 'I love him, I always have'

'So what's the problem?'

'He thinks I should apply for a transfer to another team.'

'Well you can't work in the same team and have a…a…'proper' relationship can you, so one of you has to transfer if you want to give it another go; neither of your careers would survive another clandestine relationship' Danny saw Sam wince at the harshness of his words even though he spoke them as gently as he could.

'I know that, it's just ….' She hesitated, then is a rush, 'why does it have to be me that transfers why should he assume that I have to make the change. He ended it between us before and I understood why, I didn't make waves, I was the perfect bloody ex mistress' Danny could hear the anger in her voice as she continued, 'and he was so arrogant, telling me that he knew I still felt the same………' she fell silent, biting her lip as she tried to regain control of her emotions

Before Danny could say anything the phone rang; he cast an apologetic look at Sam; 'Taylor'. He listened for a moment the, 'OK, we'll be there in a minute'. He put the phone down, 'James Holland is here, you gonna come and talk to him with me?'

Danny thought that he could see a hint of relief in Sam's eyes. She nodded, stood up and headed toward the interview room at a pace that, as tired as he was, had Danny's mouth curling in amusement…..

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

'Jack'

Jack looked up from the drawer he was searching.

'Look at this' Viv sounded excited. Jack stood up and headed over to see what she had found.

'What you got?'

She turned to look at him, a wide smile on her face and indicated the box she held in her hand; 'This was in the air conditioning vent, whoever went through this apartment last night must have missed it'.

Jack stared inside the box at a large amount of cash and four cell phones. He looked up at Viv; '_four_ cell phones?'

She held up a bill of sale, 'these four, plus the two that we have the call records for, plus another 10 where purchased from a wholesaler for cash around 6 months ago. I'll call tech and get them to run the numbers and see if it gives us anything.'

Jack was rifling through the cash, 'There is over $20,000 here', he looked at the bands around the money, 'and all of it appears to have come from the same bank, I'm betting we can trace where this money comes from', he grinned at Viv, 'this is the first time I've felt like we're getting anywhere. Come on let's get back to the office and see where this takes us.'

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Sam stood at the window of the interview room and looked at the man sat inside.

James Holland; owner of one of the biggest, flashiest casino's in Atlantic City; a Harvard graduate and ex-model with a chiselled jaw and piercing blue eyes and a considerable talent for self promotion. His legs were stretched out in front of him, his hands thrust into the pockets of his designer jeans and the casual, relaxed appearance was completed by the designer stubble showing on his tanned face.

Danny arrived by her side reading a file. He handed Sam a copy, a grin on his face; 'look at this!' She quickly looked through the information contained in the file and then looked at Danny, her eyes wide, 'Wow, and they are OK with us using this?

'Yeh, it seems that Victor's made some calls and hey presto……'

'Does Jack know?'

'I just called him; he and Viv are on their way in'

'Well, let's go make some talk then shall we?'

Sam and Danny entered the interview room; James Holland sat up and took his hands from his pockets as they took their seats; Danny smiled, 'Thank you for coming in Mr Holland'

'No problem, have you heard anything yet?'

Sam sat back watching James Holland. He appeared subdued but his eyes were cautious, watchful………

'Well we are pursuing a number of lines of enquiry including talking to those people who know Robert best, hence our wanting to speak to you; when did you last see Robert?'

Sam saw James Holland tense at the abrupt way Danny asked the question and shift slightly in his seat. His eyes dropped to the table for a moment before he looked up again, his gaze switching between Sam and Danny as if trying to decide what to say……….

'It's a simple question Mr Holland, when did you last see Robert Kenilworth?' Danny sat forward, his voice was harder with a distinct edge to it.

Holland shrugged, 'We saw each other at the weekend'

Danny smiled, at Holland and then turned to Sam; 'That's nice isn't it, they saw each other at the weekend'

'Hmm, did you do anything nice together Mr Holland?'

Sam was smiling at Holland too and she saw him shift uncomfortably before he shrugged; 'it's Atlantic City, there's always something 'nice' to do'

'I'm sure there is, and I'm sure that you and Robert have done just about everything there is to do…….'

Danny's smile was still there as he threw some photos onto the table; Sam saw Holland's face whiten as he looked at them. He pulled back; 'I think I need a lawyer'

Danny leaned forward, his smile gone, his voice cold; 'You can get a lawyer if you want but if you do I can tell you that your chance of us agreeing to a deal goes out of the window. Alternatively you can tell us what this', he pointed to the photo's, 'is all about'

Sam leaned forward and turned the photos slightly as if she was interested to see what was on them, 'Hmm, what is that white powder Robert appears to be inhaling Mr Holland', she pulled another photo from the pile, 'and this 'lady' that he is getting very friendly with, do you know her?'

Holland seemed unable to speak; Danny turned the photos back toward him and looked at them again. He looked up at Holland a look of false surprise on his face; 'You know, that looks an awful lot like Diana Monroe', he turned the photo toward Holland, 'don't you think?' he turned the photo toward Sam, 'I mean, I think that looks like Diana Monroe, but it can't be can it?'

'Well I don't see how it can be, I mean why would your girlfriend perform oral sex on your friend while you film them……….' Sam stared expressionlessly at James Holland who was staring at her like a rabbit caught in headlights; she turned to Danny, 'unless of course that's what floats his boat? Maybe we should ask Diana Monroe'

'No need, we had an agent speak to her a few minutes ago' Danny had a smirk on his face as he watched Holland's reaction; 'she told us that you blackmailed her into having sex with Robert, something about setting her up on drugs charges if she didn't. We've offered her immunity of course, and she seems happy to tell us as much as she knows'

Holland groaned and put his head in his hands; Danny lent forward, 'Mr Holland, I know that you know what has happened to Robert Kenilworth and why………now you tell us what you know and we can sort out a deal'

Holland sat back and stared at Danny and then started to laugh; 'you think if I tell you what you want to know that I'll live past the weekend? You're mad'

Danny looked at him without sympathy; 'we'll offer you immunity and put you in the witness protection scheme if you testify; alternatively we will prosecute you and make sure that certain people know that you talked...', he shrugged, 'one way gives you a chance the other pretty much guarantees your early and regrettable demise'; he held Holland's horrified stare, 'your choice.'

'Well we'll leave you to have a think about things Mr Holland; don't take too long', Sam smiled at him as she and Danny stood up and left the room


	10. Chapter 10

_**A quick thanks to everyone who's posted a review, they are much appreciated!**_

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'So he's lawyered up?'

'Hmm, and we don't have anything to hold him on because Diana Monroe is refusing to press charges against him for blackmail and whilst it might make him a scum bag, we can't arrest him for filming his girlfriend having sex with his friend……..unfortunately' Danny scowled at James Holland through the one way glass.

'Why was he?'

'What, filming them?' Danny glanced at Jack and saw the confirmatory nod of his head, 'Blackmail I assume; it would certainly put a dent in his congressional hopes if photos of him and Diana Monroe started circulating'

'Blackmailing him for what purpose? How can a lawyer in the Mayor's office in New York help a casino owner in Atlantic City?'

Danny shrugged, 'Maybe it was forward planning. I should imagine having a Congressman in your pocket can be useful'

Jack shoved his hands into his pockets a thoughtful look on his face but before he could say anything they both heard the sound of someone hurrying toward them and turned to see Viv approaching, a wide smile on her face.

'I've just got some information on the money we found in Kevin Brown's apartment', she waved a sheet of paper at them, 'and you are going to love this but I don't think our friend here will' she glanced toward James Holland sat talking to his lawyer in the interview room.

Jack and Danny exchanged glances and then both looked at Viv; 'The money came from a bank in Atlantic City. It shows as being issued as part of a regular delivery of cash to the Xeon', she held her hand up to stop Jack interrupting her, 'We checked with them and they recorded that these notes were included in the money that was paid to Ed Caldwell as payment for some 'construction work' that is supposedly being done on the Xeon at the moment.'

'Caldwell? Didn't Kevin Brown work for Caldwell Construction?' Jack was standing straight now, the interest in what Viv was explaining apparent on his face.

'Yes he did and what's even more interesting is that according to local law enforcement there isn't any construction happening at the Xeon at the moment'.

Jack and Danny both stared at her, 'so let me get this straight. The money found in Brown's apartment originates from James Holland's casino and was paid to Brown's boss for some non existent construction work' Danny spoke slowly

Viv smiled grimly, 'Yes so we can now link James Holland to the man who attempted to kill Maggie, and what's even better is that thanks to Victor working his magic we have the go ahead from White Collar and the Treasury Department to threaten Robert Holland with money laundering and tax evasion charges as well'

Jack looked surprised, 'They aren't usually so cooperative, what's got into them?'

'Holland's not their target; he's just another link in the chain to the one they really want. They won't reveal the name to us but I spoke to one of the agents working the case and he said the guy they are after has links to organised crime, prostitution, white slave trade, money laundering and drugs', Viv grinned at the stunned looks on the faces of Jack and Danny, 'they want us to work on Holland and try to get him to agree to a deal where he gives them everything he knows in exchange for immunity and a place in the witness protection program.'

Jack turned to look at Holland again before turning back to Viv and Danny, 'So are we expected to ignore the fact that Holland is implicated in the attempted murder of a US Attorney and the disappearance of a major figure in city government?'

'According to the agent I spoke to, they don't think that Holland had anything to do with it, they are fairly certain that the orders came from the top. He's speaking to his bosses and hopefully he is coming to brief us later.' Viv was staring at Robert Holland who was looking remarkably relaxed; she turned to Danny; 'So are you going to break the news to Mr Holland then?'

'You know, there are times when I _really_ enjoy my job' and with this a smiling Danny entered the interview room. Jack and Viv remained standing at the window watching as Danny broke the news to James Holland and his lawyer. Viv echoed the satisfied smile on Jack's face as they watched the relaxed posture disappear and a look of horror appear on James Holland's face.

They watched as Danny stood up again and left the room, a wide grin on his face as he came back to stand at the window with Jack and Viv again, to watch as Holland and his lawyer talked urgently. They saw Holland stand up abruptly and begin to pace

'He doesn't look very happy now, does he?' The satisfaction was evident in Jack's voice.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Sam walked along yet another corridor checking the numbers on the doors to make sure she was moving in the right direction. She rounded a corner and the proof that she had reached her destination was right in front of her in the shape of Victor Fitzgerald.

He was standing talking to a doctor and wasn't looking in Sam's direction; Sam took a deep breath and continued to walk towards them, but before she reached them the Doctor turned away and Victor turned and walked into a room.

Sam reached the door and she could hear Victor talking to Martin; '…….still surprised that you hadn't let your mother and I know'. She looked into the room and could see Martin sat at Maggie's bedside, his back towards her. She knocked on the door frame and, looking past Victor, smiled at Martin as he swung around

'Hi, I hope you don't mind me coming by…….' She knew she sounded hesitant but the look on Victor's face was enough to make anyone nervous. Before he could say anything however Martin stood up and came over to her; he was white faced and tense but managed a smile when he saw her. She put her arms around him and hugged him, feeling him hug her tightly in return before stepping away.

'How is she?' Sam continued to ignore Victor as she stared firstly at Martin and then let her gaze wander past to where Maggie was lying unmoving on the bed.

'The head CT shows the swelling on her brain isn't as severe as initially thought; the doctors are hopeful that she will wake up in the next few hours.' Victor sounded officious and Sam saw Martin grimace and roll his eyes as he turned away. She turned toward Victor and held her hand out;

'Director Fitzgerald, I'm Special Agent Samantha Spade, I work with Martin'

He stared at her for a moment, assessing her and she wondered if he knew about her and Martin, then he shook her hand; 'Agent Spade, what brings you here?'

She was momentarily taken aback by the coolness of his voice as she heard Martin say warningly;

'Dad'

Victor turned to look at Martin, his eyebrow raised questioningly at Martin's tone as Martin continued; 'Sam's a friend, why wouldn't she be here',

Sam was surprised at the edge to Martin's voice and she saw annoyance flare in Victor's eyes but he seemed to think better of whatever he was about to say, instead contenting himself with smiling stiffly at her and then, without looking at Martin, 'I'll go and find your Mother. I'll bring you back a coffee', he looked at Sam, 'can I get you anything Ms Spade?' his tone suggested that he was expecting her to say no

Before she could respond Martin answered for her, 'Sam'll have a coffee too. Black, no sugar', he sat back down, his back to Victor. Sam saw Victor's mouth tighten again and then he nodded and left the room.

She heard a sigh escape Martin and saw the tension leave his shoulders. She moved to stand next to him and rested her hand on his shoulder; he reached up and gripped her hand in his for a moment then dropped his hand back to his side and looked up at her

'Thanks for coming'

'Sorry none of us have been able to get over before now but there's been a lot going on', she pulled up a chair and sat down next to him.

'Have you found Robert?' Martin sounded bitter

Sam hesitated and looked carefully at Martin but he was staring at Maggie. She placed her hand gently on his arm and he turned to look at her;

'It wasn't Robert who attacked Maggie. The man who did is dead'

Martin stared at her then turned back to look at Maggie, 'So what, it was a complete co-incidence that she's attacked after getting desperate calls for help from Robert?', his voice dripped with sarcasm.

'No, we think it's linked to Robert somehow but he appears to have gone missing before Maggie was attacked and it looks as if he was being blackmailed so………..' Sam shrugged her shoulders before continuing, 'it appears to be linked to another much bigger investigation. Your father has got us access to information that has helped and Jack, Danny and Viv are following it up at the moment, we just thought you would want to know what was going on and we wanted to see how you are doing'

She watched as Martin continued to stare at Maggie and for a while there was silence then he turned his head slightly, 'I suppose you've been running a background check on Maggie'

Sam took a deep breath and then, keeping her voice a steady as possible, 'It's standard procedure Martin and initial information suggested that she was attempting to blackmail Robert into coming back to her', she raised her hands in protest as she saw the anger on his face

'You know how these things go; we were told that Robert had done a background check on her and found out that she had an abortion the summer the two of you did your west coast trip'; Sam threw him an apologetic look as she saw the look on his face as he realised just how much they had found out about not only Maggie's life but his too; 'The information we had was that he ended the relationship because of his pro-life stance and that Maggie was blackmailing him by threatening that she would use her influence with her father to block him getting the congressional nomination'

She stopped as she saw the outrage on Martin's face; 'tell me you don't believe that shit', he was shaking with rage.

Sam shook her head; 'none of us believe it, for a start, Danny is adamant that Maggie is head over heels in love with you and he's a man who knows about these things' she smiled trying to lighten the mood and saw Martin's mouth twitch slightly. He sighed

'She didn't have an abortion Sam'

'Martin, it's none of my or anyone else's business if she did or if she didn't'

He was staring at Maggie again; he reached out and took her hand, stroking it gently as he continued as if Sam hadn't spoken;

'It was the last week of our trip and she wasn't feeling well………..she had a pain in her side and I thought it was appendicitis so I rushed her to the emergency room, but it wasn't appendicitis, she was pregnant and it was ectopic.' Martin was still staring Maggie, stroking her hand.

He sighed, 'They had to operate and after they had they told her that it was unlikely she would ever be able to have children. She was devastated and her way of coping was to push everyone away, including me. A year later she checked herself into a clinic that dealt with stress and depression; she told me later it helped her start to come to terms with what had happened. We stayed in touch but I think I reminded her too much about what had happened; its really only been the last couple of years that we have been able to be easy in each others company and only since she got to New York we really talked about it.'

Sam looked thoughtfully at Martin; 'who other than you and Maggie knew about this?'

He stared at her for a moment, then his face creased in concentration, 'well, I know that she didn't tell her parents and I definitely didn't tell mine. I can't swear absolutely that she has never told anyone what happened but I'm pretty sure she hasn't, I know I didn't.'

'So the only people other than you and Maggie who would know are the doctors at the hospital and the people at the clinic'

'Yes, why?'

'Because Henry Saunders told us that Robert told him she had an abortion'

Martin looked confused, 'What's Henry Saunders got to do with this?'

'He and Robert are on a charity together and apparently became quite friendly. He was the one who told us that it was Robert who ended the relationship because of Maggie's 'abortion'. The thing is, at an initial glance you could twist what happened so that it looked like an abortion, but only if you knew about the ectopic pregnancy'

Sam's face was twisted into an expression of concentration and Martin stared at her, at a loss to understand where this was going. She looked up at him, 'Why would someone lie about it to Robert unless they wanted to drive a wedge between him and Maggie?'

Martin shrugged his shoulders; Sam looked at him, 'Did Maggie say anything about how they split up?'

Martin paused for a moment, collecting his thoughts; 'She told me that she came up for a black tie dinner shortly after he moved here and said he seemed distant and was acting strangely. She confronted him, they rowed and she told him she thought they should take some time out and think about whether it was what they both wanted. He came down to Washington two weeks later and they had a good weekend and he begged her for another chance, told her that he had been an idiot and that he needed her. She agreed to give it another go, flew up to spend the weekend with him the next weekend and he was all over the place'.

Martin paused and looked at Sam, 'she thought he might be on drugs. They rowed again and he nearly hit her; she left and told him it was over. She didn't say anything about the pregnancy or that Robert knew about it and given what we talked about that night I'm positive that she would have mentioned it.'

Sam nodded, 'It's probably nothing……..' she turned as she heard someone approach and saw Victor and a woman she took to be Martin's mother enter the room carrying coffees.

She felt Martin grip her arm and heard him murmur; 'for the love of god please stay a bit longer or I'll be up on a murder charge'

She grinned at him, 'nah, they'd offer you a deal due to provocation……..' she saw him smile as he stood up;

'Mom, I'd like you to meet Sam…………'

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Jack sat staring at James Holland who was sitting sullenly across from him.

'You understand the terms of the deal Mr Holland, unless we are completely happy that you are co-operating fully and disclosing all facts that we consider to be material the deal is off.'

Holland nodded, his eyes cold and watchful

'Where is Robert Kenilworth?' Danny leaned forward, his posture and expression aggressive and he saw Holland sit back involuntarily in his seat, his eyes flicking between Jack and Danny

Jack slammed a file down on the table causing Holland to jump; his expression changed from watchful to fearful

His mouth moved as if he was trying to figure out what to say then he groaned slightly, 'look I don't know where he is exactly but I do know he's dead………..'


	11. Chapter 11

'Dead?'

Jack and Danny stared at each other for a second before looking back at Holland; he was sitting bent forward, his elbows on the table holding his head in his hands. He looked up at them and they could see tears in his eyes;

'Yes……that bastard Brown shot him'

'You were there?' Jack made the question sound more like a statement and Holland nodded, seemingly unable to speak.

Danny and Jack glanced at each other again; 'I think you had better tell us about it don't you'; the coldness in Jack's voice caused Holland's head to jerk up and he made a visible effort to pull himself together.

'I got a message yesterday around 2pm to tell me to be ready to be picked up because there was a meeting I needed to be at. When the car arrived I went to get in it and that's the last thing I remember until I was woken up somewhere near La Guardia', he paused, struggling to get the next part of his story out

'We were in a warehouse; Brown was there and so was Robert………..' he was really struggling now, he voice choked and his hands working frantically, the knuckles showing white as he clenched his hands into fists over and over again; he took a deep breath and managed to continue; 'he had been beaten pretty badly and they were still beating him, trying to get him to tell them where 'it' was. He wouldn't say anything but then…………..' he stopped again his eyes meeting Jack's and Jack could see he was crying now, 'it got so bad he couldn't stand it any more, he told them he didn't have 'it' but that he had given it to Maggie……………..then they shot him'

He was sobbing now, his head in his hands, his body shaking; Jack and Danny looked at each other as they sat and waited for him to get his emotions back under some control; eventually, when he was calmer Danny leant forward

'You're certain he's dead?'

The agonised expression on Holland's face told them he was certain even before his words confirmed the fact; 'he shot him in the head………there wasn't anything……..'

'OK, what did they do with his body?' Jack cut across his description before Holland's emotions could get the better of him again

'I don't know'

'Well, where was this warehouse?'

'I don't know', he saw their expressions, 'I wasn't conscious on the way there and they blindfolded me on the way to the airport but I do know it didn't take more than 15 minutes to get to the airfield because they took me there and put me on a plane to Las Vegas for a meeting I had last night.'

'OK, you keep talking about something 'they' wanted. Who is 'they' and what is it they want?' There was more than a hint of aggression in Danny's voice as got up and sat on the table next to Holland, deliberately invading his space. He saw the fear in Holland's eyes so continued, 'and remember, your deal only works if you tell us everything'

The phone on the wall buzzed, looking mildly irritated Danny picked it up; 'Yes', he listened for a second then looked at Jack and jerked his head at the door.

Jack followed him out of the room to find Viv waiting for them; 'What's up?'

'We've just heard from the hospital'

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Martin stood up and stretched; 'thank god for that', he turned and looked at Sam, 'and thanks for staying'

She smiled weakly at him, 'I see what you meant now when you said your parents see the world in a very particular way'

He rolled his eyes and turned to look at Maggie's still unconscious form and then grinned at Sam; 'I bet she woke up hours ago, heard their voices and decided she was better off asleep'

Sam laughed, 'would you blame her?'

'No, I was starting to wonder if they would ever go' Martin sighed and sat down again next to Maggie, 'you know you should go home, you haven't slept in two days'

'Well neither have you Martin' Sam sounded amused

He shrugged his shoulders, 'I'll get some sleep in the chair' he reached into his pocket and pulled out his keys, 'but if you or Danny get a chance could one of you go back to mine and grab me a change of clothes?'

Sam frowned at him, 'I've got a better idea; why don't you head back to yours, have a shower, get changed and come back. I'll stay with Maggie until you get back and then I'll head home for a couple of hours sleep'

She saw him hesitate, his eyes on Maggie; 'Martin, even if she does wake up, you heard the Doctor, it takes time to come around properly after a head injury like the one she's suffered so even if she does start to wake up you are going to be back a long time before she knows what's going on'

He still hesitated and she spoke more sharply 'you won't be any use to her if you don't look after yourself'

He looked at her, a flash of anger in his eyes which quickly faded as he saw the concern in hers. His expression changed to one of resignation and he stood up; 'I'll be as quick as I can'

He stood staring at Maggie; Sam placed a hand on his arm and when he turned towards her she hugged him tightly, 'she'll be OK, I promise I wont leave her and I'll call you if anything happens'

He hugged her back and dropped a kiss on the top of her head; 'thanks, I don't know how I would have got through the last couple of hours without you'

She smiled at him, 'that's what friends are for'; the smile he gave her told her that he had heard the emphasis she placed on 'friends'.

After Martin left Sam sat in the chair next to Maggie, trying desperately to stay awake. A pleasant faced sensible looking nurse came in to take some readings, the name badge on her scrubs read 'Ford'; she looked surprised when she couldn't see Martin anywhere.

'I sent him home for a shower and a change of clothes'

Nurse Ford smiled, 'I'm impressed you managed to get him to go, he's refused to move from her side since they bought her out of theatre'

Sam yawned, 'God, sorry, I'm just so tired' she saw Nurse Ford look at her sympathetically,

'Can I get you anything? There's a coffee machine just down the corridor, it's not great but it might help you stay awake'

Sam shook her head and yawned again and they both laughed, 'Well maybe a coffee would be a good idea………' her voice trailed off as she saw the nurse's face change slightly and watched her bend over Maggie, staring at her intently

'What is it?' Sam wasn't feeling tired now.

Nurse Ford looked up at her; 'I'm just going to get the doctor along here to have a quick look at her' seeing the worry on Sam's face she smiled, 'nothing bad, it just looks to me as if she might be starting to wake up'

'Should I ring Martin?'

'Wait until Doctor Roberts has seen her; it can take 24 to 48 hours to wake up 'properly' from a head trauma like the one your friend has suffered' she smiled at Sam and left the room quickly

Sam moved to sit next to Maggie again, staring at her, trying to see some evidence that she was waking up. She picked up her hand, 'Maggie, if you can hear me, Martin will be back soon, he's just gone to get changed' she felt vaguely foolish talking to someone who couldn't talk back and was glad when she heard someone enter the room behind her.

She turned around to see a doctor with an angry look on his face when he saw her there. She smiled at him but her smile faded slightly as he stared coldly at her, 'Is there a problem?'

An irritated look crossed his face, 'it's past visiting hours you shouldn't be here'

Sam stared at him, shocked by his rudeness. He stood to one side, an impatient look on his face, 'please leave so that I can examine my patient'

She stood up slowly, and began to walk toward the door. She stared at him but he wouldn't meet her eyes; as she passed him her eyes dropped to his hands………..

She stopped, 'I'm sorry, I didn't catch your name?' she stood so that she was between him and Maggie, and saw anger flash into his eyes as he glared at her

'Please leave now' his voice was cold, angry. Sam let her right hand drop so that it hovered close to her gun. She let her eyes drop to his hospital pass……………

A sudden movement caught her eye and she jerked backwards just in time to stop the punch he threw connecting fully with her face, instead it caught her on the side of the head and she staggered into the wall.

He moved past her and she could see the knife in his hand as he threw himself at Maggie; Sam kicked hard with her foot, propelling the chair she had been sitting on into the back of his legs, causing him to stumble and drop the knife. He swung around, a snarl on his face as he tried to aim another punch at Sam but he was off balance.

Sam pulled her gun out aiming it at his head; 'FBI, get on the floor, GET ON THE FLOOR'

He stood still, his eyes going to where Maggie lay………

'Move away from the bed and lie on the floor'

He looked at her coldly, 'you won't shoot in case you hit her'

'I'm way to good a shot to be worried about that and believe me, if I don't see you hitting the floor in the next 5 seconds I WILL shoot.'

He stared at her as if he was trying to decide whether she was serious or not and then shrugged his shoulders and relaxed; he moved as if he was about to get onto his knees when he suddenly threw himself at Sam.

Sam hadn't relaxed and the change in his demeanour had made her more suspicious rather than less. She saw the flicker in his eye and moved aside just in time to avoid him connecting fully with her, but her gun was jerked from her hands and flew across the floor and under the bed as he knocked into her.

She hit the wall but managed to stay on her feet; she used her hands to steady herself and aimed a kick at him as was sprawling on the floor; she felt her foot connect

'Aggghhh' he screamed and she knew her kick had landed where she had aimed, right between his legs………………

She moved as quickly as she could, handcuffing his hands behind his back before retrieving her gun. Several people rushed into the room and she felt hands take hold of her and sit her down. She was aware of something warm on her face and when she looked down she could see blood everywhere but she couldn't figure out where it was coming from……………..

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

'Right Mr Holland, start talking and don't even think about stopping until you've told me everything'; Jack had come back into the room and was staring coldly at James Holland.

Holland sat back in his chair, took a deep breath and rubbed his chin with his hand as he looked at Jack and Viv

'Robert and I were pretty tight in college and we stayed in touch after we finished, usually saw each other a couple of times a year for a weekend away sailing or skiing, that kind of thing.'

He wasn't looking at Jack, instead he was staring into space, 'when he moved to New York he came up to see me for a weekend. He was never a gambler, a few dollars in the slot machines was about his limit but he did like to party. That weekend we had a high roller in town who had taken the presidential suite at the Xeon. He invited us to a party he was holding………..'

'What's his name Mr Holland?'

'Dimitri Sokolov, Russian obviously; a big gambler and someone who knows how to throw a good party. We went and he introduced us to a couple of Russian hookers. I remember the room feeling very warm and then things going fuzzy and Robert told me after he remembered the same thing; anyway we woke up the next morning in one of the suites bedrooms assuming we had both just drunk too much.'

'I take it you hadn't?'

'No, we'd been drugged. Not long after we woke up, we both received a package and in it were photos and a digital tape. They showed us both taking what appeared to be drugs and banging the two hookers. There was a note telling us to meet the owner of the originals later that day'

Jack stared at him 'did you go?'

'I didn't want to; neither did Robert but at the end of the note was a threat saying that if we didn't show up that they would harm people close to us, so we went and found out that the price of them staying quiet was that we co-operated when required.'

'Co-operated how?' Viv spoke for the first time.

'In my case it was helping them launder money through Xeon and arranging to pay their enforcers through a construction company'

'Caldwell Construction?'

'Yes'

'What about Robert?'

'Well, I think he was the main target. He told me that he was being asked to arrange for contracts worth millions to go to certain businesses. They had someone working in his office to make sure he did what he was supposed to do as well; he hated it, said he felt like he was under the microscope'

Viv lent forward, 'this person working on his office, it isn't Charles Lawton is it?'

Holland stared at her, 'yes, how did you know?'

Viv sat back, a satisfied look on her face, 'Call it feminine intuition. Go on Mr Holland'

'Well, Robert couldn't take it. He started taking cocaine because it was the only way he could cope. I think it's what they wanted because they were supplying it and a hooker for him whenever he asked. He broke up with Maggie because she guessed something was going on and he couldn't cope with the shame, then he heard she was moving to New York and something in him snapped. He came to see me, in a terrible state, and told me he was going to get out of 'this mess' and try and win Maggie back. When I asked him how………..well that's when he told me who it was we were working for.'

'You mean you didn't know who you were working for?' Jack's sounded incredulous

'Look all they wanted me to do was launder money, I dealt with Dimitri. Robert was a far more important cog in the wheel and he dealt with the man at the top. He was given a prepaid cell and he was contacted on it by him and used it to contact him when he needed to. They even changed the phones every few weeks.'

Jack and Viv exchanged looks and Jack leaned forward

'So, what is the name of the man at the top and why does he want Maggie Carlisle dead?


	12. Chapter 12

Danny stared in disbelief at Sam

'Christ……all I was told was that someone had tried to kill Maggie and that he had been 'restrained', no one mentioned this….' he gestured toward Sam's face.

Sam tried to smile but stopped when the Doctor attending to her tutted impatiently then stepped back; 'OK, well I've stitched the cut on your head but you need to watch for any signs of dizziness or sickness as they can be a sign of concussion and you really should have someone stay with you for the next 24 hours at least'

Danny took a step forward, 'Don't worry Doctor, we'll take good care of her'

The doubtful look the Doctor gave Danny suggested that he wasn't wholly convinced about whether this would be a good thing or not; turning to Sam he continued, 'Well you need to make an appointment to have the stitches removed in 5 days but other than that you're good to go'; he nodded at Sam and turned and left the cubicle.

Danny stepped closer to Sam, staring at the stitches the Doctor had just inserted into the wound on the hairline of her forehead and then down at the blood that soaked her shirt.

'Is all that yours?' he gestured toward the blood

'Yes, but it looks worse than it is'

His eyebrows reached his hairline, 'It would have to Sam'

She grinned weakly, 'You know as well as I do that head cuts bleed worse than any other type…..anyway, at least I was in the right place' she stood up and swayed slightly; Danny grabbed hold of her a look of concern on his face. She grinned at him and gestured toward the busy waiting area, 'and I got to jump the queue'

Danny kept hold of her arm, 'Sit down again' she could hear the concern in his voice.

She shook her head and winced at the pain the movement caused her, 'I'm fine, I want to go and see Martin'

Danny let go of her arm and looked at her carefully. She was very pale but had a determined look in her eyes; he decided that the effort required to try and stop her wasn't worth it, especially as he guessed she wouldn't listen to a word he said. Decision made he shrugged his shoulders,

'Come on then', he stepped aside so that she could leave the cubicle ahead of him.

He saw her pause and look at him suspiciously, 'I thought I was going to have to insist; why are you agreeing so easily?'

'I'm too tired to have an argument with you that I know I'd lose', he grinned at her, 'and anyway I want to see how Maggie's doing'

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

'Henry Saunders'

Jack and Viv stared at James Holland, disbelief etched across both their faces

'_Henry Saunders'_

Jack sounded as stunned as he looked, 'You're trying to tell me that Henry Saunders is behind one of the biggest organised crime syndicates on the East Coast?' his voice rose as he finished his sentence.

Holland nodded

Jack stared at Viv for a moment replaying Danny's words from earlier in his head

'_He's hiding something'_

Jack thought that if what Holland was saying was right then Danny's statement would rate as the understatement of the century. The silence in the room was broken by the ringing of the phone on the wall. Viv stood up

'Yes'

She looked at Jack; her eyebrows raised and she indicated with a nod of her head that he should follow her. For the second time Jack left the interview room to find someone waiting for him on the other side of the door

'Jack'

'Victor'

Jack stared at Victor Fitzgerald and then at the man standing next to him.

'Jack this is Tom Holden. He's heading up the investigation into Henry Saunders'

Tom Holden held his hand out to Jack; he looked like the typical Washington high flyer; late 30's, smooth faced, expensive suit and a blank watchful expression on his face.

Jack shook his hand, glancing at Viv; 'This is Vivian Johnson'

The two men shook Viv's hand and then Victor gestured toward Jack's office; 'We need to talk, is Special Agent Taylor around?'

'No, he's at the hospital; someone made another attempt to kill Maggie'

Jack saw the shocked look that appeared on Victor's face and cursed himself savagely; 'Sorry, sorry, I forgot….., she's fine, he was disarmed and Special Agent Spade was at the hospital at the time' he hastened to explain and saw the relief in Victor's eyes. He met his eyes; 'Sorry, it's been a long couple of days and I didn't think….'

He saw Victor wave his apology away; 'Is Special Agent Spade OK?'

Jack paused and looked at Viv, 'Have we heard anything from Danny or Sam?'

She shook her head, 'No, but I can try and get an update for you if you would like?'

Jack nodded and watched as Viv headed in the direction of the bull pen, her phone clamped to her ear. He indicated toward his office, 'Shall we go through?'

Once they had settled themselves in Jack's office, Victor indicated toward Tom Holden, 'I think it would be helpful if Tom gave you some background on all of this.'

Tom Holden cleared his throat, 'Obviously we are all sorry to hear about Ms Carlisle but it does appear as if she has got herself mixed up in all of this'

Jack stared at him; he could feel a cold rage start to creep over him and he took a deep breath in an effort not to let it show, 'What exactly is _'all of this'_ Agent Holden?'

From the look on Agent Holden's face and the look on Victor's he hadn't done a great job of keeping his feelings to himself

'_All of this_, Agent Malone, is an investigation that has been running for nearly two years and may very well be hopelessly compromised thanks to Agent Taylor'

'What the hell is Danny supposed to have done?' Jack sounded very pissed off now and was making no attempt to hide it

Tom Holden was on his feet, his face reddening and his eyes blazing, 'He tipped Henry Saunders off that he was part of an FBI investigation'

Jack stared at him in disbelief; 'he did no such thing; he interviewed a close associate of a man who had gone missing which is normal practice in these circumstances. Frankly it would be more likely to raise alarm bells if we HADN'T interviewed him'

Before Tom Holden could reply Victor cut across the two angry men; 'you said '_had_ gone missing', does that mean you've found Robert Kenilworth?'

Jack reluctantly tore his eyes away from the flushed angry face of Tom Holden and looked at Victor; 'No we haven't found him but we do believe that he is dead'

'For the love of christ'; the words exploded out of Tom Holden's mouth and Jack swung around to stare angrily at him again.

'Tom'; Victor's voice sounded a warning to Holden who swung away briefly in what appeared to be an attempt to regain control. He swung back, ignoring Jack and looking at Victor

'That's it then, that's our last chance to nail the bastard gone'

Victor stared at Holden for a moment and then looked back at Jack, 'Where has the information come from?'

Jack turned back to Victor, 'James Holland was there when they shot Robert Kenilworth this afternoon. Apparently they believed he had some information on them and wanted to know where it was. According to Holland, Robert told them that he had given it to Maggie…..'

'Why the fuck didn't you say earlier' Holden spat the words at Jack and reached for his phone and punched in a number, 'It's Holden, it's possible that Maggie Carlisle has the information we need, I want a guard on her room, no-one in or out without my say so'

He swung back to face Jack, taking an involuntary step back at the fury he could see on Jack's face

'Listen you pencil pushing smart ass, YOU are supposed to be briefing ME, which so far has consisted of you telling me nothing I didn't already know, and a pathetic attempt to blame my agent for your cock ups…'

Victor stepped between them again, halting Jack's words

'Tom, you need to give Jack some background' he sounded tense and Jack suddenly remembered that Maggie was Victor's god daughter and his son's girlfriend. He took a deep breath and resumed his seat.

Holden hesitated a second then took his seat again; he fiddled with his phone for a second then sat back and looked at Jack

'We first became aware of this crime network 10 or more years ago but we never got close to the top; then a couple of years back a city official was busted for drug use. He was desperate not to get sent down for 10 years and offered a deal, names for the charges going away.' He glanced over at Victor and then back to Jack before continuing;

'He started to spill names and details that gave us access to a much higher level of the organisation until the only thing missing was the man at the top. We tried and tried but although we knew it had to be someone big we couldn't get confirmation of who it was, he was just too clever. 'Our source wasn't high enough within the organisation to know who the top man was but a couple of weeks ago Robert Kenilworth contacted us; he told us that he had been blackmailed to provide information and ensure that certain contracts went to the 'right' people.'

He shifted in his seat looking uncomfortable as he continued, 'he had access to the top man and it was from him we finally learned that it was Henry Saunders who was running the whole thing. We knew we could use him to close the whole thing down but we wanted incontrovertible proof' He shifted again and Jack suddenly had a premonition

'You knew he was using cocaine, you knew he was falling apart and that he was desperate to get out' his voice was accusing and Holden's head jerked up, a defensive look on his face

'Hard decisions have to be made Malone, you know that. If we had pulled him straight out we might have been able to make it difficult for Saunders for a while but he would have got off and we would never have got the chance again, so we left Kenilworth where he was and told him what we needed.'

'So what went wrong?'

Holden looked frustrated, 'I really don't know; I just know that when I last spoke to him two days ago he had changed; he was very wary and accused me of betraying him. When I asked him what he meant he said that he thought that there must be a mole in the FBI because he was certain that Saunders knew he had spoken to us'

Jack stared at him, the pieces of the puzzle coming together in his head, 'you mentioned a city official that was informing for you, what's his name?'

For a moment Holden looked as if he was going to ask why Jack needed to know but instead glanced at Victor who nodded;

'Charles Lawton'

'Charles Lawton……….Robert's number two in the Legal Council's office was your mole'

'Yes'

'Did he know that Robert was talking to you?'

'No, he wasn't told'

'Well I think he found out and I think he told Henry Saunders' Jack glared at Holden

Holden looked at Victor and then back at Jack, flinching slightly at the look in Jack's eyes, 'But he doesn't know that Henry Saunders heads up the organisation',

Jack gave Holden a contemptuous look, 'and you know this because he told you I suppose? I mean who would you be more scared of; the FBI or a man who would turn you into fish food without a second thought? He knew Saunders was in charge and he found out that Robert was talking to you and he told him and because of that Robert is dead and Maggie is in a coma'

Holden stared at Jack, 'that's just supposition; you don't have any proof….'

'Danny said that Saunders was trying to make it sound as if Maggie was trying to blackmail Robert. I think he was trying to make us believe that Robert ended things with Maggie and that Maggie was blackmailing him. He wanted us to think that Robert attacked her and then disappeared when he realised how badly she was hurt, although I suspect she was supposed to die' he looked at Victor, 'he knew some thing's about Maggie that he couldn't have known without some serious digging around; I think he has known for a while about Robert and I think this was his way of trying to fix the problem but Maggie managed to stab her attacker and I think Robert managed to get some information to her that Saunders is scared of, hence the reason for the second attempt.'

He stood up, 'look, for all I care you can have Holland and you can take down Saunders; I've done my bit, I've established that Kenilworth is dead. Now I'm off to the hospital to see my agents and then I'm going home to get some sleep' he looked at Victor, 'if you want a lift to the hospital I'm leaving now'

With that, Jack turned and walked out of the door and headed for the elevator.

'Jack'

He turned to see Viv hurrying toward him; 'I've spoken to the hospital and to Danny', she looked at Victor who was emerging from Jack's office

'Director Fitzgerald, the hospital has told me that Maggie is coming round. Martin is with her but I thought you might like to know so that you can be there too'; she turned back to Jack, her back to Victor and Jack saw the fierce warning look she gave him;

'I've spoken to Danny as well; apparently Sam was hurt when Maggie was attacked. She's had her wounds stitched and Danny has persuaded her that she should go home and rest but apparently she may have a mild concussion and someone needs to stay with her for 24 hours to make sure there are no complications' she paused her face still sending a warning message to Jack.

He took a deep breath, 'where is Sam now?'

'She's at the hospital; Danny was going to run her back to her apartment but she wont go until there is someone to stay with Martin, he wants one of us to head to the hospital; he's worried that if she doesn't get some proper rest soon she's going to collapse'

Jack stared at her for a moment then looked at Victor; 'right, I'll run us out to the hospital; you'll want to see Martin and Maggie and I'll make sure Sam gets home and gets some rest' he looked at Viv, 'and you need to go home and get some sleep as well.'

He ignored the sceptical look on her face, 'Go! Go home now and get some sleep, I'll take care of Sam...'


	13. Chapter 13

Danny glared at the Agent barring the door of Maggie's hospital room, 'You gonna move buddy or are you looking to take a shower in this coffee? He raised the cardboard tray in his hand with the three cups of coffee sitting on it and waved it under the Agent's nose.

The Agent stood his ground, his arms crossed, a sneer on his face…………..

'Is there a problem?'

Danny turned to see Victor striding along the corridor accompanied by Jack and a man he didn't recognise.

The Agent seemed to deflate like a punctured balloon, 'er no sir, no problem at all' he moved his head trying to avoid the glee in Danny's eyes

Victor, Jack and the other man stopped in front of the Agent who moved quickly aside; the other man grabbed the Agent by the arm and dragged him a short way down the corridor where he began to berate him in a low voice.

Danny grinned at Jack, 'that was a timely arrival'

Jack raised an eyebrow, 'well it certainly stopped him ending up with 3rd degree burns'

Danny shrugged his shoulders and nodded his head in the direction of the man berating the Agent, 'who's that?'

'Tom Holden, he's heading up the investigation into Henry Saunders; seems to think that you compromised his investigation when you interviewed Saunders'

'Yeah?

'Yeah' Jack paused for a moment then nodded his head in the direction of the hospital room, 'how's Maggie?'

'She's restless; she hasn't woken up yet but the Doctor thinks that she is likely to in the next couple of hours'

Jack stared through the door at the figure sat by Maggie's side, 'how's Martin?'

Danny shook his head, 'I don't know how he's kept it together, particularly since he's had to cope with his parents being here; Sam reckons he was about ready to kill them this afternoon, but he's OK' he paused and grinned at Jack, 'although you won't be his favourite person,……bringing Victor back.'

Jack threw Danny a sour look, 'you think I had a choice?' he hesitated, and then peering into the room asked carefully, 'is Sam in there? How's she doing?'

He saw the appraising look that Danny gave him and heard the slight pause before he answered; 'She's on the couch in the corner; she took a hard knock to the head and needed some stitches; she's very tired but she wouldn't leave Martin until there was someone to stay with him.'

Jack nodded, then without looking at Danny, 'I'll run her back to her apartment'

He could feel Danny's eyes on him and turned to see a far from enthusiastic look on his face as he heard this suggestion. He could see that Danny was trying to think of a suitable response and waited………..

'Look Jack, if Sam is happy for you to run her back then that's fine but if she say's she's not then you are going to have to let me do it' Danny held Jack's eye's without flinching

Jack nodded; before he could say anything Tom Holden arrived at their side; Jack could see the other Agent heading down the corridor toward the elevator.

Holden eyed Danny in an unfriendly manner, 'this is Agent Taylor I assume'

Jack and Danny exchanged glances; from the look on his face Jack guessed that Danny was about to say something less than tactful and intervened before he could

'You had better take those coffees in to Martin and Sam before they get cold' the warning tone in his voice stopped the heated words about to spill forth from Danny's mouth; Jack bit his lip to stop himself laughing at the contemptuous look Danny threw at Holden before he headed into the room with the coffees.

He turned to Holden; 'lay off Danny Taylor, you know and I know he had nothing to do with compromising your investigation; you managed that all by yourself. If I hear that you've threatened or in any way attempted to intimidate him I'll have your balls' he turned and walked into the room leaving Holden open mouthed with shock.

Walking into the room Jack could see how tired everyone was; Martin was white faced and haggard but Jack knew that had as much to do with worry as it had to do with tiredness; Danny was sitting on the couch next to Sam rubbing his face with his hands in an attempt to stay awake and Sam…………. Jack felt a jolt of fear run through him as he took in her white face, the stitches in her forehead and the blood……………….

'What the………..just how badly were you hurt?' the fear he felt made him speak harshly and he saw the hurt in her eyes and the anger in Danny's. She met his gaze and he saw the hurt replaced with something else he couldn't quite place a finger on.

'Jack…….' Danny's tone sounded a warning but he stopped as Sam placed a hand on his sleeve. Jack could see Victor looking at him with raised eyebrows and saw that even Martin had turned around and was looking between him and Sam, concern showing on his face.

Sam stood up and walked toward him, 'Jack, I'm OK, really I am, I just need to go home and rest', she laid her arm on his sleeve and met his worried stare. For a long moment they stood looking at each other then Jack turned to look at Danny

'I'm going to run Sam home; are you OK here?'

Danny didn't answer; instead he looked at Sam, a question in his eyes. Whatever he saw in hers seemed to make him relax slightly and he nodded briefly at Jack, 'Sure, I'll stay with Martin'

'That won't be necessary', Tom Holden spoke sharply, 'Agent Fitzgerald will have his father here and I'll be here as well. Agent Taylor should go home and get some sleep'

'Who the hell are you to say who stays in this hospital room and who doesn't' Martin stood up, clearly furious and Danny stood quickly and placed himself between Martin and Holden just in time to stop Martin launching himself at him.

Holden stepped back, shocked at Martin's aggression and sat down abruptly on the floor as he tripped over Sam's foot.

'Sorry about that' she didn't sound sorry in the slightest.

Victor seemed to come to life, 'Get out'; he towered over Holden and Holden gaped at him

'She's the main witness in a Federal investigation; I have to interview her as soon as possible if we are going to find out what she knows'

'For god's sake man, she's unconscious and even when she comes around she's hardly likely to be in a fit state to talk to you for a while. Anyway, with me, Martin and Agent Taylor she's got three Federal Agents looking out for her which is more than enough. Now get out and you'll be notified when she is able to talk to you' Victor was clearly exerting a huge amount of self control to avoid shouting but the effect was the same. Holden scrambled to his feet, flinching slightly as Martin surged forward against Danny's grasp in an attempt to reach him.

Turning with as much dignity as he could manage he left the room. Silence followed his departure then Victor turned to look at Sam

'I take it that was an accident Ms Spade'

Sam smiled weakly, 'You know sir I must be feeling worse than I thought, I just didn't see him'

'Hmm' Victor was having trouble keeping the smile from his face; he turned to Martin, opened his mouth to say something but seeing the look in his eyes stopped and obviously thought better of it.

'Come on then' Jack looked at Sam and then at Martin, 'you'll call me if you need to?'

Martin nodded; he hugged Sam and Jack could hear him whisper 'Thanks, I would never have got through today without you and Danny'

Jack watched as Sam hugged him back then hugged Danny; 'see you both in the morning'

She turned and headed out of the door with Jack following. Danny and Martin looked briefly at each other

'Right I'm going to get a coffee and to make some calls, I won't be too long'; without waiting for a response from either Martin or Danny Victor headed out of the room.

Martin sighed, 'thank god for that' he looked at Danny but Danny wasn't looking at him, instead he was staring at Maggie

'Martin' his voice caught, and Martin turned to stare at the bed…………

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Sam sat with her eyes closed and her head back as Jack drove them to her apartment. He hadn't said a word since they had left the hospital which she was grateful for.

She felt the car stop and she opened her eyes, surprised to see that they had arrived. Jack jumped out of the car and came around and opened her door for her, his hand steadying her as she climbed out and stumbled slightly.

'Thanks'; she didn't move away from his grasp and she felt him shift slightly so that he had one arm around her shoulders and one hand holding her arm as he walked her up the steps to the front door. It felt strange to have his arms around her again, strange but nice, comfortable…..safe.

He looked at her and then smiled when she looked blankly back at him

'Keys?'

'Oh….yes, in my bag'

He took the bag from her and she felt a sudden chill run through her as she lost the warmth of his arm from around her shoulder. He looked at her

'You cold?'

She shook her head; 'no, just tired'

He produced the key, opened the door and held it so she could walk inside. They reached the door to her apartment and he opened that too and led her inside. She heard the door close and could feel him stood behind her; she could sense his uncertainty….

'I think I'm going to have a shower, I need to get rid of all this blood….' She gestured toward the bloodstained shirt, 'do you want to make yourself a drink?'

He nodded and smiled hesitantly at her, 'sure, do you want one?'

'A coffee would be good, there's some decaf in there somewhere' she watched as he headed toward the kitchen then turned and went into the bedroom.

When she came out after her shower he was sitting on the couch reading a magazine, his jacket over the chair. He stood up when he heard her come into the room, the slightly hesitant, uncertain look back on his face again; 'Your coffee's here' he indicated toward the mug sitting on the table, 'how are you feeling?'

Sam picked up the mug, wrapping her hands around it and clutching it to her, 'better for having a shower',

He sat back down on the couch but he was sitting forward, on its edge. She sat down next to him, their legs inches apart as she too sat on the edge, still clutching her coffee. For a long time they sat in silence then Jack turned his head very slightly

'I really am sorry about Monday; I was pig headed and insensitive and………….' His voice trailed away for a moment then, 'but I don't know what to do about how I feel about you'

She turned to look at him, shocked by the rawness of his voice and the tears she could see starting to form in his eyes

'I don't know what to do either' she spoke in a whisper and felt him put his arm around her as she let her head sink onto his shoulder as they both sat back on the couch.

They sat like that for a while; Sam could hear his heart beating, it's rhythm soothing her; she could feel her eyes growing heavy……

'Hey, you need to get some sleep', Jack moved prompting a mew of protest from Sam's lips as her comfortable half slumber was disturbed. He stood up and held out his hand to her;

'Come on' he took her offered hand and pulled her up and then led her into the bedroom. He led her up to the bed and pulled the covers back,

'I'll sleep on the couch, is your spare bedding still in the same cupboard?' he moved across the room to the cupboard and looked back at her, waiting for her answer

'No'

He stopped and turned, 'OK, where is it then?'

She shook her head impatiently, ignoring the pain that the movement caused; 'No, I mean don't sleep on the couch'

'The Doctor said someone had to stay with you' he spoke patiently but his face looked confused

'Well then, stay with me, but not on the couch. Stay here'

He stared at her for a moment then, doubtfully, 'you want me to sleep in the bed with you?'

'Yes'

He came back across the room to stand in front of her, his eyes searching hers, trying to understand what was happening. Sam climbed into bed and pulled the covers back for him; he hesitated for a moment then kicked off his shoes, pulled off his tie and lay down next to her, still in his shirt and pants. She turned so her back was to him but reached behind and found his arm and pulled it over her so that they were spooning. She could feel the tension in him slowly go and his breath in her hair as she fell asleep.


	14. Chapter 14

_Someone was calling her name, telling her it was time to wake up, but she was comfortable in her warm dark cocoon and she didn't want to wake up._

_The voice was more insistent now…….she groaned and tried to open her eyes but her eyelids felt too heavy and she couldn't seem to get them open. _

_She could feel a hand on her arm and knew that someone was bending over her, calling her name again………………she knew who it was and she tried again to open her eyes but it was too hard; she wanted to go back to sleep, back to that comfortable, warm, safe place that she had been in before he started calling to her._

_There was a pleading note in his voice now and she could hear another voice too; she made a huge effort………………….._

_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_

Martin stared past Danny at Maggie……….she had definitely moved.

'Maggie, Maggie….it's time to wake up now' he sat down next to her staring intently at her face; _'Maggie' _he heard a soft sound come from her and watched as her eyelids flickered but remained closed.

He stood up and bent over her, his hand on her arm, 'Maggie'; her eyelids flickered again, for longer this time

'Maggie come on you can do this, just open your eyes, please open you eyes'

'Martin' Danny placed his hand on Martin's shoulder, 'she's trying Martin, give her some more time'

Martin glanced back at Danny then back at Maggie, the flickering of her eyelids was more pronounced now and both men watched her struggle in silence until the movement ceased again.

Martin's shoulders sagged and he sat down, his elbows on the bed next to Maggie and his head in his hands, trying not to let his frustration show; he heard a gasp from Danny and felt a hand touch his arm………………..he jerked his head up and stared at the hand resting against him; it was smaller than Danny's ………….. he slowly raised his eyes to see Maggie watching him……………

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The vibrating of his cell phone woke Jack. He sat up carefully, trying not to disturb Sam and headed into the living room before answering the call

'Malone'

'Jack, its Viv'

He caught sight of the clock; it was a little after 7am; 'What's up, what's happened?'

'I couldn't sleep so I came to the office and did some more digging and something very interesting has come up. I think you need to get here as soon as you can and you need to get Victor here as well'

Jack rubbed his eyes trying to wake himself up; 'you _couldn't sleep_?' he shook his head in disbelief

'Jack, listen to me, this is serious. You need to get hold of Victor and get here as soon as you can. I'm going to phone Danny and make sure that he and Martin stay with Maggie.'

'OK, I'll call Victor……' he realised the phone had gone dead and stared at it for a minute, replaying Viv's words.

'Jack, is everything OK?' Sam stood at the door to the bedroom

'I don't know. That was Viv, apparently there's been a development and she needs me to go to the office straight away and bring Victor with me. She said she's going to call Danny to make sure he and Martin stay with Maggie'

Sam looked confused; 'Make _sure_ they stay with Maggie? Does Viv think something is going to happen to her?'

Jack shrugged his shoulders, looking hard at Sam; 'You look better';

'I feel better' she smiled awkwardly, 'I had a good nights sleep and that always helps'

They stared at each other for a moment, neither knowing what to say.

'Give me a minute and I'll get ready, you can give me a lift in'

'Are you sure, don't you want to….to rest a bit more' he held his hands up in a gesture of surrender and laughed at the look of disgust on her face, 'ok, I'll get hold of Victor and then we'll head in'

She turned to go into the bedroom and then hesitated for a moment; 'Jack' he looked up, 'thank you for staying with me last night'

They stared at each other for a long moment; he saw her mouth twitch up at the corner and knew he was smiling too. She took a step back, still staring at him then shrugged slightly the crooked smile still on her face, 'I'd better get dressed'

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Jack dropped Sam at the office before he went home to have a shower and change his clothes. Walking into the bullpen Sam could see Viv sat at the conference table working on one of the laptops; she looked up as she heard Sam approach and smiled

'Hey, good to see you, how are you feeling'

Sam laughed, 'well, like someone smashed my head into a wall really'

Viv indicated toward the stitches; 'how long before those come out?'

'Five days. He thinks there will be a small scar but nothing too noticeable' Sam settled herself in the chair next to Viv, 'have you heard anything from the hospital?'

Viv beamed, 'I spoke to Danny; Maggie's woken up'

'That's great' Sam look relieved but then a more cautious expression crossed her face, 'and, is she…er…you know…herself?'

Viv was still beaming, 'Danny said she's very tired and only stays awake for a few minutes at a time but she knows who they are, seems to remember what happened to her and she told Martin she hated his top'

Sam laughed, 'Well I'm with her on that one; it's horrible'

They both turned as they heard footsteps and saw Jack and Victor approaching. Viv raised her eyebrows at Sam before she stood to greet the two men

'Agent Johnson, Jack tells me that you have something that you think I should hear' Victor looked as tired as he sounded

'Yes sir I do'

Jack slide into the seat next to Sam

'Have you heard the news from the hospital?' Sam spoke in a low voice, bending her head toward Jack

'Yes, Victor told me on the way up in the elevator'

He sat up as he saw Viv and Victor look at him; 'So what is it you've found out?'

'Well there were a few things that bothered me and so I did some more digging around…'

'What bothered you Agent Johnson' Victor sat forward, a slightly impatient look on his face

Viv threw an apologetic look at Jack before turning back to Victor;

'Well several things really, firstly, that it took Robert coming forward for anyone to know that Henry Saunders was heading up this organisation, I mean, I understand that it can be tough to prove but I've never heard of it taking us this long before'

Victor looked thoughtfully at Viv, 'OK, yes it is unusual' he sat back, 'is that all?'

'No, I also wondered about why people were telling us that Maggie had an abortion, I mean if they found out about the pregnancy why twist into something that it wasn't'

Sam and Jack glanced swiftly at each other and then both looked quickly at Victor. He was staring blankly at Viv

'Maggie was pregnant? When?' Viv threw Jack another apologetic look

'You know that she and Martin took a trip the summer Martin graduated from Harvard?'

Victor nodded his head impatiently, 'Yes of course, we were all hoping they would come back and announce their engagement…..' his voice trailed away as he realised he had said more than he meant to; Viv rolled her eyes at Sam and cut in before the silence became embarrassing

'Well at the end of the trip Maggie was unwell; Martin took her to the hospital and they discovered she was pregnant but that the pregnancy was ectopic. Obviously she had to have an operation. Henry Saunders twisted the facts and told Danny that Maggie had an abortion but what I couldn't understand was how he found out about the operation at all.'

Viv stopped as Victor got to his feet and began pacing, she looked at Jack and Sam both of whom looked as if they would rather be anywhere but in the bull pen at the moment. Victor stopped pacing and glared at Viv

'OK, so why is that significant?'

'Like I said, I did some digging and as part of that I spoke to the hospital that treated Maggie. The records department were very surprised when I called because they had only recently sent Maggie's records to the FBI'

Jack and Sam both stared at her in amazement; Victor sat down abruptly in his seat. No-one spoke for what felt like minutes then Jack sat forward

'The FBI had requested Maggie's records? When?'

'Two days after Robert approached the FBI' Viv turned to Victor, 'I'm right aren't I; he approached you, not Tom Holden'

Victor was staring at her blankly, 'Yes, obviously I know…..…_knew_ Robert and he called me. We met and then I turned the information over to Tom Holden and his team'

Jack stared at Viv, 'I think you need to just lay this out because I'm confused now'

'The information about Maggie was obtained by Tom Holden. I can't prove it but I think that the reason we hadn't got close to catching Saunders was because Tom Holden is working for him and has been effectively blocking the investigation'

Silence fell again then the Sam spoke slowly; 'so Henry Saunders would have known straight away that Robert was informing on him because Tom Holden would have told him…….'

'And that's why the bastard left him where he was; he was setting Robert up to get killed and then presumably he would claim that he died before he had given us any concrete evidence against Saunders' Jack ran his fingers through his hair in frustration

'Yes; I assume that Robert became suspicious; he couldn't come to you' Viv glanced at Victor, 'because for all he knew it was you that had told Saunders so he went to the one person he knew he could trust; Maggie. I'm guessing they knew he spoke to her and were worried that he would tell her enough to blow the whole thing wide open so decided to get rid of both of them. They made it look as of Robert had ended the relationship and that Maggie was blackmailing him. I suspect that Kevin Brown was supposed to get back any information that Robert had given her then kill her and then Saunders would tell us enough to make us suspicious of Robert who would have conveniently disappeared.'

'But Saunders must have realised that we would suspect him' Sam sat back, staring at Viv

'I'm sure he does because the final piece of checking I've done is to ascertain that Mr Saunders is planning to leave the country this morning by private plane and the flight plan is to Brazil…'

'Who we don't have an extradition treaty with…' Jack jumped up but before he could do anything else he saw the smile on Viv's face

'What?'

'I've already alerted the port authorities and sent a team over to the airfield, Mr Saunders isn't going anywhere'

Jack grinned then frowned, 'What about Tom Holden?'

'Well I didn't want to tell Danny and Martin until I'd spoken to you but I did tell them that they shouldn't let anyone near Maggie, not even other FBI teams and that one of us would get there as soon as possible and explain what's going on. Other than that I've got a watch on all of his credit cards and phones; hopefully something will pop.'

Victor stood up, 'Agent Johnson I want to commend you for an outstanding piece of work'; he looked at Jack, 'in fact Malone I want to commend your entire team. Now please excuse me, I need to make some phone calls and then I need to find out how long it will be until Maggie's parents arrive' he nodded and headed towards Jack's office.

Jack stood up and looked at Viv; 'I think we need to go to the airfield and make sure Saunders is apprehended and after all your efforts I really think you should be the one who put's the cuffs on the bastard' he turned to Sam

'Are you OK to go to the hospital and let Danny and Martin know what's going on' he glanced over to where they could see Victor on the phone, 'and I think you had better warn Martin that Victor knows about the miscarriage'

Sam nodded, 'I'll go now' she grinned at Viv, 'give Saunders one from me will you?'

'It will be a pleasure'

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Sam stepped into the elevator; a man in scrubs and a white coat was standing next to the buttons and raised an eyebrow in question

'6 please' Sam lent against the back of the elevator as a couple of nurses and a harassed looking administrator got in as well.

The elevator stopped at the 4th floor and the nurses and the doctor got out. Sam straightened up as the doors closed and the elevator began to rise again. It passed the 5th floor and then stopped at the 6th; the doors opened and Sam stepped out and headed down the corridor toward Maggie's room.

She reached the door to Maggie's room and flashed her badge at the agent on the door who stood back…………..'excuse me, miss, excuse me'

She turned to see the administrator from the elevator hurrying towards her, an apologetic look on his face holding something in his hand

He smiled nervously at the agent and then at Sam, 'I think you dropped this in the elevator' he held out his hand and Sam stepped towards him trying to see what he was holding…………and found herself staring at a gun.

She looked up at him; his face had changed from that of a nervous administrator to a cold, hard faced killer.

'Step back into the room Agent Spade' a movement caught her eye and she realised that the Agent who had been guarding the room was going for his gun

She flinched as the gun in the killers hand sounded and the Agent slumped to the floor; she felt him grab her and bundle her through the door

Danny's gun was in his hand and it was pointing at them as Sam was forced into the room; she could see the shock and uncertainty on his face. She could see Martin's gun was out as well and that he was standing so that he was between the door and Maggie……

She could feel an arm around her throat and the gun pushed against her ribs. She heard the door slam and felt herself dragged along the side of the room so that they were at the back of the room with Danny between them and the door.

'Put your gun away Agent Taylor; you can try and shoot me but I promise that if you do your friend here', he tightened his grip around Sam's neck, 'will be dead'

Danny kept his gun pointed at the gunman; 'You're not going to get out of here; by now the NYPD and the FBI will know about the shooting and the place will be crawling with cops and feds, so why don't you put _your_ gun away and we'll all walk away from this'

'Of course we will' Sam flinched at the sound of his laugh and he tightened the hold around her neck again as he hissed in her ear 'stay still Samantha, it will be a lot less painful I promise you'

Danny and Sam's eyes met and then Sam's eyes flicked to Martin; she knew they were all wondering how this guy knew their names.

'What is it you want?' Martin kept his gun pointing at Sam's captor and Sam noticed how he stayed between the gunman and Maggie.

The gunman sighed, 'Oh come on Martin, don't be dense, I want the documents, computer files whatever Robert Kenilworth gave your girlfriend'

Martin gave him a scathing look, 'Oh and I suppose she found time to pick them up and put them in her handbag as she was being rushed to the hospital with major head injuries did she?'

The gunman sighed again; 'Now come on Martin, she knows where they are and I need to know…'

'What good is it going to do you….even if she does know where they are you can't get out of here to destroy them' Danny kept his voice calm but kept his gun raised

The gunman laughed, 'Oh I have my ways'

'If you're expecting Tom Holden to sort this mess out you need to think again; we know he works for Henry Saunders'

Sam felt the shock run through the gunman and saw the mirroring emotion on both Martin and Danny's faces; she hoped that they weren't too shocked as she drove her elbow back into her captors stomach and threw herself to one side; she heard gunfire and the unmistakable sound of a bullet hitting flesh and then someone was screaming…………


	15. Chapter 15

Blood……………….there was blood everywhere; even through the smoke that filled the room she could see the blood on her hand……………

'Sam, SAM, are you OK?'

Danny was next to her, crouched down, his hands running over her face and arms trying to see where the blood was coming from

'It's not mine……….'

They turned their heads; the smoke was clearing and both could see the pool of blood spreading from the body of the gunman; Sam turned away and thought she saw Danny's face go slightly green at the sight of the mess that had once been a head.

Sam looked over to the bed, Martin was leaning over Maggie

'Is she OK, are you OK?' Danny was on his feet again and heading for the door; they could hear shouting outside

'I'm fine, Maggie's OK….' Martin's voice trailed off and he stared at the bullet hole in the wall, inches from Maggie's head; he turned and looked at Danny but Danny was staring at it too. Their eyes met for a moment, both realising how close the bullet had come…………. then Danny pulled himself together and headed for the door

'FBI, coming out' he flipped his gun so that he was holding it upside down by the trigger guard and cautiously opened the door, extending his arms out so that they could see he wasn't about to shoot anyone…………

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Jack and Viv arrived at the airfield to be met by an agent from the port authority

'Do we know when he is likely to get here?'

'Yes sir, we've just had word that they are less than 5 minutes away' the agent reached into his jacket, 'this arrived 20 minutes ago' he handed Jack the arrest warrant; Jack noticed that Judge Goodwin had signed it and smiled grimly, he knew Goodwin had a soft spot for Maggie and that he would have had no hesitation in signing this particular warrant.

He handed the warrant to Viv, 'You cracked this case, so you get to arrest the toe rag'

Viv took the warrant, checking it through to make sure all was in order and then slipped it into her jacket; the agent's hand shot to his ear piece and he appeared to be listening intently to something

'He's just turned in, ETA at the plane 1 minute'

Jack and Viv headed toward the plane; they could see the pilot and crew waiting for Saunders, the steps to the plane in place, just waiting for Saunders to arrive and climb on board. The limousine appeared and came to a stately halt and the chauffer jumped out and held the door open.

Jack and Viv were almost at the plane as Henry Saunders got out of the car and shook the pilot's hand. Jack saw the chauffer glance in their direction; he saw his hand reach inside his jacket...

'FBI, put your hands were we can see them'

Both Jack and Viv had their guns out and trained on the group in front of the plane as several more FBI agents appeared, all with guns. The chauffer put his hands up and the planes crew all looked shocked but Jack noticed that Saunders barely batted an eyelid

Viv approached Saunders and put her gun away; 'Agent Johnson, FBI. Henry Saunders I have a warrant for your arrest, place your hands behind your back' she held her handcuffs up so he could see them

Saunders raised an eyebrow, a look of smug superiority on his face; 'Do you know who I am?'

Viv smiled a steely smile that didn't reach her eyes, 'well clearly I do Mr Saunders otherwise it wouldn't be you I was arresting for being a murdering lowlife scum bag, now would it?'

Jack saw the look of fury that crossed Saunders face as Viv turned him none too gently and applied the handcuffs

'I want my lawyer NOW, I demand you get my lawyer; you've no right to arrest me….'

'Oh shut up, for the love of god just shut up' Viv sounded bored which seemed to inflame Saunders all the more

'I'll have your jobs for this, I'm not without influence…'

'SHUT UP' Jack shoved his face at Saunders, stopping only inches away and for a moment the two men glared at each other before Jack continued; 'now Agent Johnson will read you your rights and then you are coming with us'

Saunders continued to glare at Jack but remained silent while Viv read him his rights

'I want my lawyer'

'You'll get your lawyer…..when we get to our offices. Now get in the damn car and SHUT UP'

Jack watched as Saunders was put in a car and then looked at Viv; 'how did that feel?'

'Well, it would have felt better if he tried to resist, still you can't have everything can you'; they both laughed as Jack's cell phone rang

'Malone'

'Hey Victor, we've got him and he's on his way in now; who do you…………' Jack paused and Viv saw his face change

'Are they all OK?' he listened again, OK well keep me updated'; he put his phone down

'Something happened?' Viv was staring at him, concern showing on her face

'Yes, a gunman ambushed Sam, Martin and Danny in Maggie's room; Victor said they are all OK and the gunman is dead' he paused, 'look we had better make sure Saunders gets to our offices for questioning and then we can head to the hospital'

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Once she had finished her statement Sam went to look for Martin and Danny. She found Martin, predictably, in Maggie's room. Victor was there too but he got up and left as she walked in, dropping a hand onto her shoulder as he walked past but not stopping or saying anything

Sam stared after him in surprise and turned to Martin

'No higher praise than that' Martin grinned wryly.

Sam shook her head slightly, 'OK, well…….more importantly, how's Maggie?'

'She's fine'

Sam jumped, it wasn't Martin who had answered; Sam saw Maggie's eyes open slightly and a faint smile appear on her lips

She approached the bed, 'Hey sorry about all the noise before and the change of scenery' she looked around the room and smiled at Maggie

The smile on Maggie's face grew, 'That's ok', speaking was clearly difficult for her, she raised an arm slightly and gestured toward Sam's face

'You ok?'

Sam grinned and self consciously touched her stitches, 'Yeh, fine just clumsy….you know, ran into a wall' she rolled her eyes and pulled a face

Maggie's eyes had swivelled to Martin in a silent message that he obviously understood because he looked at Sam shaking his head; 'Nope, no point she knows what happened'

Sam raised an eyebrow and Martin shrugged and turned back to Maggie; her eyes were closing again and he squeezed her hand

'The nurse will be here in a minute and my dad's back' Sam became aware of Victor standing in the doorway, 'so is it OK if I go with Sam to look for Danny? I'll be back soon I promise'

Maggie opened her eyes again and stared at Martin for a moment then looked past him to Sam; 'take him _please_'; this was accompanied by a slight roll of the eyes but softened by the smile on her lips and the way she squeezed his hand; Martin laughed, kissed her briefly and stood up

He and Sam headed down the corridor, looking for anyone who could tell them where Danny was.

'I would have thought he would be back by now, he's been threatening to tell Maggie all sorts of made up stories about me so I'm surprised he hasn't grabbed his opportunity'; Martin was frowning as they continued their search

'Maybe he's speaking to Jack and Viv; your Dad said he had let them know what had happened'

'Maybe'; Martin pulled out his cell phone and called Danny's number; at Sam's raised eyebrows he grinned, 'on this part of the floor it's OK to use them, I checked'

He paused and frowned; 'straight to voicemail'

'Well, maybe he's not in a part of the hospital that lets you use phones'

They spotted one of the Doctor's who had been at the shooting earlier; he saw them and headed in their direction; 'Are you looking for Agent Taylor?'

Sam and Martin exchanged brief glances before Sam nodded her head

'Well, he's going to be fine, he was remarkably lucky, an inch or so to the right and he could well have lost the use of his arm'

'_What_' Sam stared at Martin then back at the Doctor, 'I don't understand, what do you mean he could have lost the use of his arm, what's happened to him?

The Doctor looked at them in surprise; 'Sorry I assumed you knew; one of the bullets fired earlier caught him in the arm.'

'But he was fine…………..'

'It's the adrenalin that kick's in when something like this happens; the bullet caught him on the upper arm………'

'I didn't see that he was hurt, surely I should have seen something, his jacket must have been torn, there must have been some blood….'

'Sam, none of us were in a state to see much of anything and it doesn't sound as if Danny noticed so why would you' the calmness of Martin's voice stopped Sam. She took a deep breath and then turned back to the Doctor

'Where is he?'

'In the ER'

'Thanks' Martin turned to head for the elevators, Sam following

'I wouldn't rush, he seemed quite happy' Martin turned back in surprise at the Doctor's words

The Doctor grinned, 'he's got Anna Vasquez stitching him up. I might be wrong but I think they know each other'

'Anna'; the satisfaction in Sam's voice was evident

'Huh?' Martin was looking totally confused now

'Thanks Doctor, we'll go and find him' Sam dragged Martin quickly in the direction of the elevators

'What's the significance of 'Anna'?' Martin's face showed Sam he had guessed that this might be interesting

'Well, you know how the most we ever hear about Danny's girlfriends is a name, if we're lucky?'

'Yeh'

'Well I happen to know that the current girlfriend is called Anna….'

A huge smile split Martin's face, and he pushed the button to call the elevator with enthusiasm; 'this should be good'

They found a white faced Danny in a cubicle, leaning back on the bed, his shirt and jacket were on the chair next to him and he was in very close conversation with a very pretty dark haired nurse

He looked up when Sam and Martin arrived and said something quickly in Spanish to the nurse who grinned and jumped off the bed and left the cubicle

Sam and Martin looked at each other then back at Danny; 'you'll call her later will you? What's that for, some private nursing and a bed bath?'

The look on Danny's face was priceless as he stared speechlessly at Martin; 'it's no good man, you've taught me enough Spanish to understand that, no matter how quickly you speak'

Sam sat down on the bed next to Danny, a look of mock concern on her face; 'did she kiss it better?'

Danny scowled, 'you could try for a little sympathy; I've been shot'

He held his arm out, a pathetic look on his face; 'Hmm, you look like you've done OK out of it though' Sam raised her eyebrows at him; I assume that was 'the' Anna, of the '_there's plenty of things I'd like to be doing with her, and not necessarily in bed_' quote from the other morning'

Danny's scowl returned as he saw the grin's on Sam and Martin's faces; 'you can both go, I'll be fine without your 'support''

'Oh come on, what kind of colleagues would we be if we didn't stay with you in your hour of need' Sam smiled mockingly at him

'What I 'need' neither of you can give me, now go away and find someone else to bother' Danny glared at them

Martin and Sam exchanged looks of mock surprise, 'He sounds a little cranky doesn't he; do you think it's because he hasn't slept for two nights and has been shot in the arm or because we've met his girlfriend……' Martin had a look of glee on his face

Danny gave him a disgusted look; 'shouldn't you be looking after _your_ girlfriend or something rather than bothering the sick and the injured'

'Sick, you're not sick, you've got an itty bitty scratch on your arm' Sam scoffed

Danny's face broke into a reluctant smile; 'get out of here'

'Room for two more?'

Danny groaned as Jack and Viv came in; they both looked surprised at their greeting

'Don't mind him, he's feeling cranky because we met his girlfriend…….'

Jack and Viv's faces immediately lit up with interest; 'Really? Is she around here anywhere?'

'She's here and she think's her patient needs some rest before she discharge's him' the pretty dark haired nurse appeared again, a stern look on her face; 'so you can come back in a hour or so and collect him, until then…' she stood back to indicate they should leave

Danny had a smug self satisfied look on his face; 'you heard the lady, off you all go, leave me to get some rest' and with this he closed his eyes and settled himself back on the bed

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Sam sat with her head back against the head rest, her eyes closed. After leaving Danny, Martin had headed back up to see Maggie and Viv had volunteered to wait for Danny to be released, leaving Jack to drive Sam back to the office.

'Are you OK?' she could hear the concern in his voice; she opened her eyes and turned her head slightly so she could look at him

'I'm fine' he looked doubtful and she started to laugh, 'really Jack, I'm fine'

They pulled up in the underground car park at the FBI offices and Jack jumped out and came around to open Sam's door for her

'Thanks', she stepped out of the car, aware of how very close he was and that he wasn't moving………she looked up into his eyes; the expression in them made her feel suddenly breathless, he was leaning toward her……….

The touch of his lips on hers sent a thrill through her; he pulled away still staring at her and raised a hand to gently caress her face

'Sam, I……….' he stopped, frustration replacing the tenderness in his eyes

'I know, we need to talk' she placed the fingers of one hand on his lips to stop him from interrupting, 'tonight, we'll talk tonight'

He took hold of the hand that she had used to stop him interrupting, turned it so its palm was towards him and placed a soft kiss in its centre; the intimacy of the gesture left Sam's knees feeling weak.

He dropped her hand and stepped back to allow her past; 'tonight then'

She nodded and they walked slowly to the elevator……………


	16. Chapter 16

_Well here is the final chapter! Just a warning, its on the long side _

_It's also more about the agents and less about the case but there were a few loose ends that needed tidying up so I thought I had better tidy them._

_Thank you to everyone who has posted reviews thus far, they really do make my day. _

_I hope you enjoy the final chapter………………and, as always, your reviews are very much appreciated!._

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**Six Months Later**

Sam sat staring out of the window of Starbucks on 34th Street, letting her mind idle pleasantly as she watched the people rushing by; she missed Manhattan…..she had enjoyed the last 19 weeks at Quantico but she would be glad when she finished next week and she could start her new life……………..her thoughts were interrupted by Maggie dropping heavily into the seat next to her;

'Sorry I'm late but really……._men'_

Sam pushed a mug of coffee toward her; 'Move going well is it' she laughed as Maggie rolled her eyes, a disgusted look on her face

'I couldn't have stayed a minute longer…… and then Jack and Danny turned up to help….' She shook her head; 'why do men have to have a 'system' for how they do something? They could have _finished_ the damn move in the time it's taken them to discuss _how_ they are going to do it. Honestly, I've never been so happy to get an offer of an afternoon's retail therapy in my life'

Sam grinned and pushed a copy of the New York Post toward her; 'look, Macys shoe department is having a sale' she saw Maggie's eyes light up and a wide grin spread across her face

'Oh please please let me find something there that I want, it will so wind Martin up'

Sam was laughing;' how will buying shoes wind Martin up?'

'Hah, I quote Mr Fitzgerald from two days ago as we, or should I say I was packing; 'why does anyone need so many pairs of shoes and boots, and where are we going to put them in our new apartment?'

'Ah, is he still under the impression that the third bedroom is going to be a den for him and Danny to watch the football in rather than your walk in closet?'

Sam watched, surprised, as the expression on Maggie's face changed and a look Sam couldn't pin down appeared along with a faint colour which stained her cheeks. She stared even more when she saw tears spring into her eyes

'What's wrong' Sam couldn't keep the alarm from her voice as she bent toward Maggie, her hand on her arm

Maggie shook her head, a smile appearing on her face as she dashed the tears away with the back of her hand

'It's nothing, it's just the third bedroom isn't going to be a den or a closet….' she stopped and then in a rush, 'Sam, I'm pregnant'

Sam stared at her stunned, 'I thought you couldn't…..' she saw the glow in Maggie's eyes and a smile spread across her face as she leaned forward and hugged her, 'that's wonderful news'; then she sat back; a suspicion forming, 'you haven't told Martin yet have you?'

Maggie looked guiltily at Sam, 'no, I only realised last week and I wanted to get it all checked out, you know, make sure everything was OK before I told him'

Sam stared at her, 'so when are you telling him?'

Maggie smiled and reached into her bag and pulled out an envelope; from it she took a picture and handed it to Sam

'Your scan picture' Sam looked at it for a moment then raised her head to stare at Maggie, a confused look on her face, 'er, I'm no expert but shouldn't it look more like a blob and less like a baby at this stage?'

'Well that's what I thought but as the nurse who did the scan pointed out, when you get to 14 weeks….'

'14 weeks?'

Sam sounded stunned; Maggie shrugged her shoulders, 'er, yes, roughly my reaction, but apparently I am 14 weeks pregnant'

Sam glanced down at her stomach and then back up at Maggie; 'you're not showing'

'Well you say that but I started noticing the things were feeling tight a couple of weeks ago and the nurse said that at about 16 weeks I'll really start to show…' she shook her head, 'we're off topic aren't we; I thought I'd tell Martin on his birthday, you know, put the picture in his card' she looked anxiously at Sam, 'I thought it would be a really special present for him but now I'm worrying he'll be upset that I didn't tell him sooner'

Sam shook her head, 'I think he'll understand; it's the sort of thing he'd do'

Maggie grinned, 'well in that case, lets go shopping; I feel the need to check out the maternity wear'

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The Sunday afternoon routine was now well established; a lie in then a walk to the local deli for Sunday brunch, a read of the Sunday papers then a dash to the airport to catch the plane back to Washington

'Last time we'll do this' he paused, then, 'when do they let you know your assignment?'

'Tomorrow, first thing; I'll call as soon as I know but you do realise don't you, I've very little chance of getting the New York post?

'Yeh ,well, let's cross that bridge when we get to it' she could tell he was trying to stay positive but both of them knew that by this time next week she could be clear across the country; Sam tried not to think about how that would affect them………she put her head back and closed her eyes.. Remembering;

_She had felt strangely calm as she opened the door to let him into her apartment but his hands had been shaking as he handed her the wine and flowers he had bought. They had gone through to the living room; Sam had poured him a glass of wine and he had drunk half of it down in one gulp. _

_She waited to see if he wanted to start but he didn't say anything, just played with his wine glass, his head down and his eyes fixed on the floor._

'_I've spoken to Van Doren; I've asked to be considered for the profiling course at Quantico and then an assignment to a Behavioural Analysis Unit'_

_He jerked his head up nearly spilling his wine, 'what?'_

'_I've asked for a transfer Jack'_

'_But, I thought that's what tonight was about, I thought we were going to discuss….to discuss….well…. **us**'_

'_There can't be an 'us' if we are working in the same team can there?' _

'_No, but……..' he looked frustrated, 'I thought we were going to discuss it?'_

_She stood up 'I don't want to talk Jack, we've done nothing but talk'_

_He rose to his feet, an uncertain look on his face, 'I thought………..' his voice trailed away as she took the wine glass from his hand and placed it on the table; then she stepped forward, slipping her arms around his waist _

'_I don't want to talk'_

_He stared down into her eyes and she saw that he understood, like he had always understood her. He cupped her face in his hands and then slowly lowered his head and gently kissed her_

_The touch of his lips sent a shiver through her; their lips parted and the kiss deepened; she could feel his hands tangle in her hair and she pressed herself closer, feeling the heat from his body. She pulled back slightly, staring into his eyes; 'take me to bed'_

_He didn't say a word; he just picked her up and carried her to the bedroom………….._

_The next day she had applied for a place on the profiling course in Quantico and had been accepted; 4 weeks later she had cleared her desk and headed to Washington to start the 20 weeks of training. They had talked about how the separation would affect them but Jack was adamant that she should do the course if that was what she wanted and that they would find a way to make it work._

_They had tried to keep their relationship quiet but Viv and Danny had guessed straight away and Martin had too, once Maggie's condition started improving and he could focus on something other than her. Sam was pretty sure Van Doren had guessed, but she hadn't said anything to Sam and Jack swore that she hadn't said anything to him. Sam found she didn't care anymore; she was happy, Jack was happy and somehow it was working._

_It had been a strange existence; her apartment had been sublet and weekends in New York had been spent at Jack's apartment. She had worried about how Hannah and Kate would react; Hannah was distant but she and Kate were getting on well and Hannah was warming to her slowly. Her lifeline had been Maggie; two weekends after starting at Quantico she had come back to New York to find that Jack, Martin, Danny and Viv were tied up on a kidnapping; Martin had asked her to go and see Maggie, still in the hospital and bored beyond belief, so Sam had turned up on the Saturday afternoon and a friendship had been born. _

_The course was fascinating and it had helped take her mind off how much she missed the team……how much she missed Jack. If she didn't get the New York assignment she didn't know what would happen, she knew she didn't want a long distance relationship anymore…………._

'We're here'

His voice snapped her out of her memories and she saw the familiar sight of the terminal building. The first couple of times they had done this Jack had parked the car and come in with her, reluctant to leave her a minute before he had to, but Sam hated the prolonged goodbye and so now he dropped her at the kerb with a brief kiss, both knowing that a much more satisfying goodbye had been said earlier.

'I'll call when I get to Quantico' she stood in the circle of his arms as he smiled at her

'On the cell, I promised Martin I'd go over to the new apartment and help him with the unpacking'

Sam bit her lip to hide a smile. She had spoken to Maggie earlier and knew she was dreading the appearance of Jack and Danny 'to help' with the unpacking.

She kissed him goodbye and headed toward the checkin

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Maggie arrived on the 12th floor and headed for the bullpen; she found Martin, Danny and Viv all sat around the conference table looking relaxed. One glance showed her that the whiteboard was clear.

Viv spotted her first and nudged Martin

'Hey, this is a surprise', he kissed her before he noticed how distracted she was and how pale, in fact she looked as if she was about to throw up, 'are you OK?'

Danny and Viv both stared at her, concern showing on both their faces; Viv pushed an unopened bottle of water across the table to Martin;

'Here, have this'

Maggie nodded gratefully and took a drink from the bottle

'Hey, nice surprise'; Jack arrived at the conference table grinning at the sight of Maggie; a grin which faded as soon as he got close enough to see her face;

'What's up?' he glanced at Martin who shrugged his shoulders

'I've just spoken to Roger Young', she paused and they could see her jaw tighten for a moment before she continued, 'he's just told me that some more of the evidence has been thrown out; he thinks that as things stand at the moment the case is likely to be dismissed with prejudice when it comes to trial on Monday'

Silence greeted her words, all of them horrified at what they had just heard. Roger Young was the most senior prosecutor within the US Attorneys office and it had fallen on him to prosecute the case against Henry Saunders and Tom Holden. Grand Jury indictments had been obtained and the trial was scheduled to begin in a weeks time but the evidence that Robert had collected had never been found and with a legal team costing millions, the defence had gradually been chipping away at the evidence the prosecution did have until the case was circumstantial at best.

Jack dropped his hand onto Maggie's shoulder in a vain attempt to comfort her; she had coped brilliantly after the attack, and after only 10 weeks recovery time she had returned to work. Martin had confided that she had suffered nightmares for a while but these were now a thing of the past but the one thing she had struggled with was that she hadn't been able to help Robert.

He sighed; 'if only we had the evidence that Robert collected…' his cell phone rang

'Excuse me…….Malone….oh hey Sam…' he listened intently and they saw a huge smile cross his face

'That's fantastic news…..' he looked at the 4 sets of curious eyes all staring at him; 'yes I'll tell them….' Another pause while he listened, then, looking at Maggie, 'she's here you can tell her yourself'

He passed the phone over to Maggie, 'Sam wants to talk to you, something about a birthday card………………...' he shrugged his shoulders

'A birthday card?' Martin looked suspicious

'Huh? No idea, I'll, um, just take the call over here…….' Maggie sent him an innocent look and headed over to the door with Jacks cell

Martin stared after her and then looked at Danny who raised his hands in surrender; 'don't look at me I have no idea what they're up to', he turned to look at Jack, 'I assume from the grin that's splitting your face that she had good news?'

Jack couldn't wipe the smile from his face despite the news about the trial, 'yeah, she's got the New York opening in BAU'

Danny grinned, 'looks like we'll have a lot to celebrate on Saturday night at your birthday meal Marty'

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Sam put the phone down after talking to Maggie and frowned; she had realised something wasn't right as soon as they started to speak. It had taken a bit of effort but she had managed to get Maggie to explain about the court case

'Sam', she looked up to see David Haines, her course tutor heading her way, 'where they pleased?'

Sam laughed; she and David had got on well from the start. She had confided in him about her desire to get the New York posting before she had realised that he was involved in allocating assignments; she remembered how embarrassed she had been after she was told but he had just laughed it off.

'Jack's thrilled'

He fell into step as she started to walk back to the classroom; he cast her a thoughtful look; 'well, for someone who got the assignment she wanted you don't look so happy'

'Oh I am it just that I just got some news on the Saunders case'

When she had arrived at the course the Saunders case was still the major talking point within the Bureau, particularly with Tom Holden's involvement and everyone had wanted to talk to her about it until Sam had wanted to run screaming from the room

'Not good news by the look of things'

'No, more evidence has been excluded; the case is almost totally reliant on circumstantial evidence now and the US Attorney thinks there is a very real chance that it will get dismissed with prejudice on Monday'

They reached the classroom and he held the door open for her; she paused as she went to walk through, 'if only we knew where the evidence that Robert Kenilworth collected is' she sighed and walked into the classroom.

'What do you mean?'

Sam turned to look at him, realising that she had never spoken in that much detail about the case with him before. She explained what had happened and how a search of everywhere anyone could think of had failed to find anything resembling any evidence

By the time she had finished explaining the other 5 members of her group were gathered around, all fascinated by the story she was telling; '………so that's were we are. We can't find the evidence he was supposed to have collected and we have looked everywhere we can think of. We can only assume that he either didn't have any evidence, or that he did and they got to him before he could do anything with it'

David had got up and had started to write up some information on the board; she recognised the pattern he was developing, it was the one she had grown familiar with over the last 19 weeks.

He turned to her; 'you know that behavioural analysis applies to everyone, not just criminals. I know you think you've looked everywhere but if we analyse Robert we might find somewhere you haven't looked' he looked at the rest of the group, 'you all up for this, we can use it as a case study'

Everyone agreed with enthusiasm and David turned to Sam. 'OK we need the case files and we need to be able to speak to people who knew Robert'

Sam was already on the phone……………

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

It was late on Thursday evening when Sam and David arrived at the New York offices of the FBI.

'Will they still be here?' David glanced at his watch to see the time showing as 9:20pm.

'Uh huh, Maggie spoke to Martin half an hour ago; he said the case had only just wrapped and they were all heading to the office'

'And she's going to meet us there?'

'As soon as she has the warrant'

David raised his eyebrows, 'I hope we are right about this otherwise we are going to look pretty silly'

Sam shrugged, 'we'll look pretty silly if the case is thrown out on Monday too; I can stand the risk of some embarrassment if there's even a chance that we can get our hands on this evidence'

They stepped out of the elevator in the 12th floor and Sam led the way to Jack's office. He was on the phone, and he looked tired and cranky but his face lit up as he spotted Sam. She saw him end his phone call rapidly as she walked into the office; he was on his feet and round the desk and enveloping her in huge hug before she got the chance to introduce David.

The two men shook hands and Jack turned back to Sam

'So what are you doing back today, I thought your flight was lunchtime tomorrow?'

Before Sam could explain Maggie appeared at the door, 'I've got it'

Sam turned to Jack, 'we've had an idea about what Robert may have done with the evidence he collected'

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Sam, David and Martin sat in Martin's SUV waiting to hear the go ahead to enter the building; Jack, Danny and Viv were in Danny's car parked around the corner at the other entrance.

'So that's the reason Maggie suddenly headed for Washington on Tuesday, to help you with the profile you built on Robert'

'Yes, she didn't tell you because she felt as if it would jinx it' Sam turned to look at him and was relieved to see he was smiling.

'So how did we end up here?'

He sounded curious. Sam glanced back at David but he indicated that she should speak. She explained as quickly and as simply as she could how they arrived at their conclusion

'……..so, he would have known that he wasn't going to be able to get the information to Maggie so looking at him and at his typical behaviour we concluded he would go for a bluff. When he was being beaten by Kevin Brown he told him that he had given the information to Maggie but we know he hadn't; he wanted them looking in the wrong direction; we have to assume that he just hadn't thought that it would put Maggie in danger'

'But why would she still have it, why do you think she hasn't destroyed it?'

'It's very valuable; she's highly materialistic. She knows that if she waits until the last possible minute the price will be very high indeed'

Martin frowned, 'so you think she is going to ask the defence to pay her millions in order to make this evidence go away; her threat being that if they don't she'll develop a conscious and give it to the prosecution who, if it is as dynamite as we think, would almost certainly get a conviction using it'

Sam shrugged, 'that's about the size of it and her phone records support the theory and hence we have a warrant….'

She stopped and they all watched as a woman walked toward the building, the radio crackled and Sam heard Viv's voice

'Possible sighting of target approaching the building'

Sam used the eyeglass to try and see the woman's face. As she stepped into the light of the buildings lobby Sam could see her features clearly; she grabbed the radio

'We are go, go, go'

Martin and Danny both left their respective cars at a run; Danny entering from the side door and Martin approaching from the rear

Danny reached her first; when she saw him she turned, attempting to flee through the door she had just come in through only to run straight into Martin. Sam reached them as Danny finished reading her rights to her. She turned as she heard Sam approach and Sam saw recognition flair in her eyes

'Hello Joanne, lets go and have a chat shall we?'

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Jack stared at Joanne Kirk through the two way glass on the interview room as she conferred with her lawyer;

Maggie arrived by his side; he turned his head about to ask the question but her face gave him the answer; he grinned

'There's enough then?'

'Oh more than enough, Roger has just been through it all and he looks like a kid at Christmas, he can't wait to get on to Saunders and Holden's council and let them know what we have. I think he's planning to do it face to face so he can see the reaction'

Jack turned back to look at Joanne, 'what do you think she would have done'

Maggie shrugged, 'who knows, but if I had to put money on it I'd guess that she would have sold out to the defence and then probably disappeared. She must know that Saunders and Holden wouldn't have let her live; this has probably saved her life'

Jack shook his head; 'I guess as Charles Lawton's PA she was close enough to know what was going on but not close enough to be on our radar'

Maggie shrugged; 'I guess so', she yawned, 'right I'm going home and I'll see you all at 7:30 on Saturday'

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Sam looked around in amazement; 'you've been in here one week and it looks like this? How do you do it?'

Maggie laughed as she handed Sam and Jack each a glass of champagne; 'come through, Viv and Marcus and Danny and Anna are already here'

They headed toward the lounge but before they went in Sam grabbed Maggie's arm; 'did you tell him?'

Maggie nodded toward where Martin was telling Jack something; Sam saw Jack clap him on the back, a huge smile on his face and turn to look for Maggie

Sam grinned, 'that would be yes then'

The tapping of a glass caught their attention; Martin held his hand up, 'I just wanted to thank you all for coming. You all know our news, or you think you do…….' He paused and grinned at Maggie who headed across the room to join him; Sam looked at her thoughtfully; she was glowing with happiness but Sam was suddenly certain that there was another reason as well. Martin carried on 'Maggie told me the news this morning, before I picked myself back up off the floor I thought that while I was down there I might as well go on bended knee and luckily she said yes………'

The room exploded into noisy congratulations; in the confusion and laughter Sam found Martin and gave him a huge hug

'Your parents will be pleased'; she heard him snort with laughter

'You think?'

She smiled; 'I'm really happy for you Martin'

He pulled her in for another hug; 'thanks; I just don't know who to bet on next'

She looked puzzled, 'what do you mean'

Maggie joined him as he laughed, 'I mean whether it will be you and Jack or Danny and Anna making the next announcement'

Sam stared at him and looked over at where Danny and Anna were chatting to Jack, Viv and Marcus; she shrugged, a smile on her face

'You'll have to wait and see won't you'


End file.
